Garibaldi was born in
Melbourne, Australia, the son of
Ricciotti Garibaldi and Harriet Constance Hopcraft. Together with his father, he took part in the
Greco-Turkish War of 1897 alongside the Greeks and afterwards fought with the liberals against
Cipriano Castro in
Venezuela, and in other conflicts in
South America. He volunteered and served with great distinction in the
British Army during the
Second Boer War, carrying with him a sword given to his grandfather by the working men of
Tyneside,
England, in 1854. He served as a lieutenant colonel (
teniente coronel) in the army of
Francisco I. Madero during the initial victories of the 1910
Mexican Revolution.
Plaza Garibaldi in
Mexico City was named in honor of his actions in the battle of
Nuevo Casas Grandes.
Pancho Villa sacked Lt Col Garibaldi because of a bitter controversy over the credit for the victory at the
First Battle of Ciudad Juárez in 1911, but the name of the plaza (formerly
Pila de la Habana) stuck nonetheless, despite the way he left the Army of the Revolution. Garibaldi again served with the Greek Army during the
First Balkan War in 1912, fighting at the
Battle of Drisko alongside his father. At the outbreak of
World War I, Garibaldi joined the
French army at the head of the
4e régiment de marche du 1er étranger and later fought on the
Italian front for Italy. In November 1915 his unit was the one that planted the Italian flag on the summit of
Col di Lana. For this he received a promotion to colonel. He was promoted to
brigadier-general in June 1918, retiring from the military one year later. Garibaldi opposed the
National Fascist Party régime of
Benito Mussolini which came to power in 1922 (while his younger brother
Ezio favored it). He eventually left Italy for the United States, where he married Madalyn Nichols Taylor. In 1940 he returned to Italy, where in 1943 the German authorities arrested and imprisoned him in the
Regina Coeli prison in Rome. After the war he retired to private life. He died in Rome in 1950, aged 70. ==Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City ==