Soldiers in the Fog by Antonio Soler

Soldiers in the Fog by Antonio Soler

Original title: El nombre que ahora digo.

Translated by Kathryn Phillips-Miles & Simon Deefholts

ISBN 978-1-013693-31-2

Release date: 14 September 2023

https://theclaptonpress.com/soldiers-in-the-fog/


On Monday 8th February 1937, Franco’s Nationalist troops; aided by German and Italian troops, tanks, warships and planes, invaded Malaga. The civilians who fled from this onslaught had just one road to get away and this had, on one side high peaks and on the other the sea. Italian plane and Fascist artillery bombarded the road and in addition there was no food or transport for the refugees as they fled towards Almeria.

I have a special interest in this well documented atrocity as it was recorded in detail and publicised at the time primarily by the Mobile Blood unit headed by the Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune. Bethune’s unit transported the blood of donors to the Republican front, he was assisted by Hazen Sisen and Cuthbert Worsley.

In February 1937 the Mobile Blood unit was driving from Almería to Málaga to help after the fall of this city when they encountered the beginning of the refugee flow. Over the next few days and nights they worked tirelessly to save many lives, help the refugees to get to Almeria and record the event. On the evening of 12th February 1937, Almería, packed with 40,000 exhausted refugees, was heavily bombed by Italian and German aircraft. Bethune records the Malaga road and Almeria attacks in The Crime on the Road Malaga – Almeria, published in 1937. Cuthbert Worsley would also publish an account in 1939 in his Behind the Battle.

The major reason why this war crime is of particular interest to me is because Cuthbert Worsley is one of the fifteen volunteers from Durham; and the surrounding pit villages, that I am researching and writing about for the rededication of the Durham International Brigade memorial in Redhills; The Miners Hall in Durham.

Soldiers in the Fog is not an historical account, it is historical fiction; Antonio Soler draws upon the experiences of Republicans during the Civil war, he uses these experiences to enhance and influence his fictional narrative. Soldiers in the Fog begins with the champion of the book, a young soldier named Gustavo Sintora, arriving in Madrid, having escaped from Málaga. Therefore, the accounts from Bethune and Worsley were firmly in my mind as I started reading. However there are no graphic descriptions of the horrors witnessed on the Malaga – Almeria road, they are vaguely alluded to by Sintora so briefly that anyone without knowledge of the event would miss the reference. Thus Soler gives us a very human story, with the focus firmly on the individuals.

The narrative journey begins with Gustavo Sintora being posted to a Republican mobile army entertainment unit, stationed in the outskirts of Madrid. The entertainers are an eclectic and exotic mix, extraordinary and unusual. It seems that these characters would ordinarily be outsiders, they seem not to fit into ordinary Spanish society, but in these exceptional times ordinary society no longer exists. At first I made the superficial correlation with the television programmes MASH and It ain’t half hot mum, but there was nothing funny about the characters or the situations they found themselves in, but there is some similarity. At first the members of the mobile army entertainment unit are so diverse and unusual they are more like stereotypes than real people; grotesque aberrations who seem surreal, an impression which is enhanced by Solar’s descriptions and the initial interactions between them and Sintora.

The grotesque continues in the narrative, this isn’t a comfortable read, it is challenging, and I admit I was disturbed by a few aspects, this is far from an historical account of the Spanish War, and far from being an accurate account of the Republican experience. The Republic and the Republican soldiers are not represented favourably, in fact in a few cases the author appears hostile.

Very early, in one of the opening chapters, a scene felt so out of place that it upset the rhythm of the novel, I felt the author had made some odd choices. It started off with Sintora finding himself in a camp for Russian Airmen, there were just under 200 soviet pilots in Spain at this time therefore this seemed implausibly lucky. Solar adds to the incongruity by using the well-worn cliché of representing these Russians as constantly drunk and aggressive. Credulity is stretched further when Sintoria witnesses the brutal and sadistic execution of two of the Russian airman by their own officer, allegedly for treason. The scene ends with the other Russian airman casually strolling off, leaving the bodies of their comrades out in the open. Most Historians agree that the Soviets sent between 2,000 and 2,500 Soviet military personal to Spain,  mostly as specialists and instructors. Therefore it is highly unlikely that  the lives of these valuable specialists would be seen as expendable by their officers. Even if we accept that it may have happened it would not have occurred in such an open way, the NKVD or SIMS would not operate like this and the Soviets would be well aware of the propaganda implications; a trial and execution usually occured out of sight, if not back in the Soviet Union.

Soviet pilots on the Soto airfield near Madrid.

In a later section Stalin is lampooned by Republican soldiers, I am not saying this is unlikely, in fact the opposite, it is highly likely. However this is the only instance in which soldiers mock a leader, it appears odd that of all the leaders involved in the Spanish War the author chooses a supporter of the Republic; Stalin’s Soviet Union was one of the few and the most significant providers of material aid to the Republic. Franco nor any of his Generals are never mentioned let alone criticised or lampooned.

These minor oddities did not distract from the beauty of the narrative, however. The narrative is wonderfully interwoven throughout with excerpts from Sintora’s imaginary notebooks, a clever literary device which is used successfully. According to the story, Sintoria had handed over these notebooks to the narrator’s father, and now the narrator was exploring them. These fictitious notebooks are used to stich the story together, with the narrator elaborating on the entries, this allows him to bring in thoughts and feelings which rapidly become the driving force propelling the narrative forward. The result of this literary devise is that the reader empathises with the characters, we see their hopes and dreams, which are familiar.

As the story slowly develops the unusual assembly of characters are transformed, after some time we see them expressing  hopes and desires which are recognizable, the characters cease to be unusual but still retain the extraordinary. I gradually came to realise that these extraordinary characters have become exceptional because of the situations they have found themselves; namely they are caught up within a Civil War.

Sintora is a youth so the chief desire we see is love, the desire to be loved; on joining the unit Sintora meets Serena Vergara, the unit’s seamstress who becomes his focal point and sole thought, unfortunately Serena is married to the violent Corrons and as a result Sintora is warned off her, not only by Serena herself but  by the other soldiers in the unit. Despite this and the fact that  Serena is old enough to be his mother, he is undeterred – the notebooks make clear that she becomes the love of his life. This growing relationship binds the narrative, it also highlights Sintora’s strengths and weaknesses; he is young, with little experience in relationships, but he is determined and loyal.

Because Serena is much older than Sintora we see, and even feel, his insecurities; he is drawn to her but because of self-doubt and Spanish tradition he is reticent  and uncomfortable approaching her; he also fears the ridicule of the other men. In this way Solar humanises the character of Sintora wonderfully, he does this with the rest of the unit members also. We come to see their behaviour and emotions as perfectly logical, which allows us the empathise deeply.

I initially found the language unusual too, the sentence structure seemed odd, and then I realised that the translators have not rewritten the text in English, they appear to have produced a translation that remains true to the original text, which is wonderful as at times the text can be quite beautiful. The start is a case in point:

A dead person is a memory but back then, during the war, they were part of a landscape, a sunset that appeared at a bend in the road even if it was still mid-morning, a flower, a neglected bush that nobody bothered to water, that grew anywhere, casting shadows over the street corners and the streets themselves.

I found myself savouring the text, which meant a careful reading of the book. This had two benefits; firstly I lingered over the text which gave me an appreciation of the words used and the construction of the paragraphs, I was reading to cherish the writers art, something I do with poetry and a very exclusive number of books. The second benefit was that it helped me became deeply absorbed in the story and the characters: I was not reading the text to find out what would happen next, but rather to give me aspects to think about. The narrative led me to think about relationships, comradeship, fears and hopes.

Gradually I realised that what was missing in the initial chapters of the book was the war, the characters were occupied with mundane tasks; transporting the artists, maintaining the vehicles or sorting out the small disputes that arise when strangers live and work in close proximity. The war was ever-present but it was in the background.

When the war does audaciously impose itself upon the life of the characters it comes as a profound shock, it is short, violent and quickly over, but leaves a lasting frustration and confusion. For me this aspect highlighted the skill of the writer; Solar is not writing about the Spanish Civil War, he is demonstrating the effects of this conflict on human beings and more widely the effects of war on society. This is where I found the title so appealing, the analogy of a fog can be used to fit a number of circumstances. A fog can mask so much from view, it also disorientates. The characters find that the Civil War does both, it hides aspects of the war and individuals can hide aspects of themselves, but it will also reveal aspects which have been hidden. The interaction between the characters also creates a fog, a veling of thoughts and motives which leads to suspicion and conflict.

In terms of action, for most of this novel there is very little, the brief outbreaks of violence highjack the reader, without preamble they erupt swiftly and brutally, leaving the characters, and the reader a little shocked. The situations the characters inhabit are mundane and ordinary, with a major part of the book taken up with dialogue between the characters. The sheer ordinariness of the situations are a counterpoint to the thoughts and expressions of the characters, this leads to a surreal, almost dreamlike progression of the story. The characters go from a mundane situation to a bizarre situation so gradually that the reader does not realise that the situation has become outlandish.

This aspect reminded greatly of my absolute favourite book; The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, a satire where the devil and his bizarre entourage visit Moscow under Stalin. Here they create surreal situations, but as the Soviet Union under Stalin is so bizarre and surreal, they seemingly fit right in. There are aspects of Soldiers in the Fog where one feels this is also the case here, the characters actions are so out of place that, in isolation they appear bizarre, but when taken in the context of the Civil War these actions are perfectly understandable. Soler perfectly reflects an experience of war that is so ridiculous it almost defies description, the dark situations are almost comic, there is certainly an element of black humour in the dialogue and situations, but as the war overshadows everything these are far from being funny. In The Master and Margarita Bulgakov has the devil narrating the thoughts of Pontius Pilate, the ‘Procurator of Judaea’ in sections that are then interspersed between the main ‘Moscow’ chapters. In Soldiers in the Fog Solar inserts Sintora’s notebooks into the narrative in a similar random fashion. The Notebooks, the thoughts of Sintora are rarely used to introduce the scene, they sometimes seem unrelated to the section of the narrative, which adds to the complexity and disorientation of the situations.

There is a similarity too to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, the characters appear to be exercising free will, especially as they are not subject to the military discipline seen in regular units, but ultimately they are victims of the situation. As well as the paradox’s the characters come across a further comparison with Catch-22 is the characterisation, as with Heller, Solar’s ‘hero’ of the book is not the most prominent character; Sintora it clearly the junior in the unit, the new face who needs to fit in with the established members. This means that the majority of the named characters are described in detail, Solar writes them all as multidimensional personas, which means that there are only a small number of incidental characters, allowing the reader to empathise with all the members of the unit. I think this reflects Solar’s underlying message that this Spanish Civil War has no heroes, only victims.

The war affects the characters in multiple subtle ways, seemingly creating confusion and disruption. The characters seem to be in a constant state of great confusion, unable to plan or navigate the way ahead. This state of perplexity makes the title Soldiers in the Fog so fitting, when I mentioned this to Simon; one of the translators, he replied:

we agonised for months over the title and then had to come clean with the author that it didn’t really work in English and came up with Soldiers in the Fog. He was very happy because his working title for the novel (in Spanish) was A Soldier in the Fog, which his Spanish Publishers had insisted on changing. [To The name that I now say ]

The book has such a steady pace that on the rare occasion that violence breaks into the rather tranquil world of the support staff the event it is truly shocking, overturning the sense of stability that the pace establishes. I am hugely impressed by how skilfully this is written, we only get the odd glimpse of the events of the Civil War, experiencing hints and insinuations on what is happening in places none too distant, the War is in the background, overshadowing the actions of the characters, but not overtly oppressive.

The oppression is implied but constant, throughout the novel we have the feeling that the war will have to eventually catch up with the characters in a big way, that the dam will burst and it will become much more than an inconvenience; as the pressure builds we see how this pressure influences the way the characters behave. The characters become more frantic and unpredictable. The tension created by the war and the unusual life the characters are living gradually erodes their stable, if rather erratic, living arrangements; leading to more and more bizarre behaviour. At first we see bizarre characters behave normally and normal characters behave outlandishly, but the singular situations created by a nation at war exerts an influence in which normal behaviour becomes irregular and sometime abhorrent, we see the characters desperately trying to create a mental state necessary for surviving in a time of war.

As the war becomes darker and more intense, the pretence at stability the characters try to create is disturbed more and more frequently, the war invades the world of the mobile army entertainment unit more and more frequently and more and more deeply.

On 25 July 1938 the Republican army began to cross the River Ebro

Eventually Sintora’s unit is sent into action on the Ebro front, the crucible of the Civil War. Despite denying the possibility it is when finally faced with the horrors of the battlefield and the inevitability of Republican defeat that the unit disintegrates.  The orgy of violence stands in stark contrast with what had been described before. The characters destroy the relationships carefully built up over the course of the novel. I found this aspect shocking, I had come to empathise and sympathise with most of the characters, but in the ending a lot of this empathy is betrayed; a number of characters behave abhorrently. I was shocked and came to question my sympathy for them, but the wonderful narrative means one has to have sympathy for these characters as they struggle to avoid drowning in despair as the certainty of defeat pervades their world.

When the collapse comes it comes as a great shock, everything Solar has built up is tainted by the disintegration of the new norms, the collaboration, the civility and humanity disappears, consumed by the chaos of war. I think this is a fantastic reflection of the effects of the Battle of the Ebro on the latter stages of the War. The last death is horrifying in its brutality: an enemy plane drops a bomb, hitting a car and literally blowing the car and its occupants to pieces; bringing a disturbing correlation with the attack on Guernica.

I am impressed that Soler does not spares us the details of the shelling, bombing, artillery and the bitter cold, he hints at it for most of the novel, and occasionally gives us small examples but then at the end as the characters are thrown into the fighting, he hits the reader with the true hideousness of 20th Century Warfare, plunging us head first into the horror and squalor of war on a purely human level.

Thankfully most of characters survive, but after this experience it does not feel like a relief. I empathised with the obvious effects of trauma the characters display, and felt the tragedy of the experience, not only for the individuals but for Spain. The ending of the book did not feel like an end, it truly felt like a defeat.

One line at the end really struck me: Captain Villegas tells Sintora.

I don’t really know, but I think they’ve killed me too. I think I’m a dead man, dead like the men who were with me.

 It highlighted for me one of the many tragedies of the Spanish Civil War, the fact that the Republicans were unable to mourn their dead, it was a glorious cause for which they fought but those that were killed, both soldier and civilian, died in vain; Fascism was triumphant. The ending left a void which I think is present in our remembrance of the Spanish Civil War, the sacrifices and efforts all came to nought.

I think Soldiers in the Fog transcends historical fiction, it is set during the Spanish Civil War, the author has used this to highlight many aspects unique to this tragic conflict, but this is not about the men and women who were caught up in this conflict. I believe that this impressive book explores the challenges people face in order to retain their humanity in a time of total war – warfare in the 20th Century. This is a truly remarkable book, the translation is a masterpiece of the art of converting a given text into a another language without losing the spirit. I will cherish this book and reread it often.

SOUTIE

The following is the first part of a series, written by a friend:

SOUTIE by HARALD  CELLARS

SOUTIE; Pronounced, so – tee; short for Sout Piel which is a crude Afrikaans expression and, translated, means Salt Cock. It is used to describe British immigrants to South Africa who have one foot in Africa and one in Britain and whose genitals, consequently, are in the ocean; one not committed to Africa; a person of divided loyalties

 “Life is an unrelenting tragedy. Therein lies the comedy.” – Hal Cellars, with apologies to Martin Stillwater.

Introduction.

I immigrated to South Africa in 1975 with my wife and two children. Apartheid was in full swing. I spent most of my working life either on the shop floor or supplying goods to be used on the shop floor. This was when I became a salesman. I saw apartheid from the bottom up. Over the decades, thousands of experts visited South Africa to see for themselves the working out of separate development as it was sometimes euphemistically called. These pundits would spend a couple of weeks travelling the country and talking to  the usual suspects. Then they would go home and publish their potted opinions in some newspaper or other. As an English working man earning his living as an artisan and then as a salesman, I had a different perspective.

It is difficult now to describe how permanent apartheid seemed in those years. There is nothing so convincing as a firmly held conviction. A South African friend asked me if I could conceive of any fundamental change to the status quo: “Short of World War 3, No.” In a few years it was all gone. But then, so also was Communism and the collapse of the USSR was as world- changing as any world war. The existence of Communism was the economic, moral, political and religious justification for apartheid. When the USSR collapsed, apartheid had to go.

These anecdotes of my time on the shop floor in South Africa may amuse or dismay. They are not meant to be objective, balanced or historically accurate: they are a fistful of snapshots; a mouthful of the ocean; a slice of a lost life. For me, apartheid was a major contribution to the Human Comedy.

 Mrs. Mack

Bowels and hairdos. That’s what they talk about; all day long. If it’s not ringlets it’s constipation.

Laugh, but it’s the truth. Working women? – I despise them. I work for one reason only, if I didn’t I’d starve. My husband died ten years ago, leaving me a house paid for, a mine pension and some money. Inflation wiped it all out and I won’t live on my children.

When I was a young woman, it was a shameful thing for a wife and mother to go out to work. This lot don’t know the meaning of the word. How times do change. The silly bitches can’t see the wool being pulled over their eyes. Women’s Lib – invented by a queer or some such woman-hater. A woman’s right to work. I could puke. Someone has conned them into believing that housework, mothering and homemaking is kaffir work and that a white woman is above all that kind of thing. Maybe they are right at that.

One thing for sure, the kaffirs give more love and care to their piccannins than these dumb cows do to their kids.

It’s strange, they have kaffirs to clean their houses, cook their food, bring up their children, do the gardening, paint and repair their homes and they call them worse than shite.

These Crunchies give me the pip. I’ll tell you a typical weekend for an Afrikaner: Friday night he drives down to Swaziland to play the casinos; Saturday he screws the black girls; Sunday he comes back to the Republic and goes to church and on Monday mornings, it’s “those damn kaffirs” all over again. They’re a rubbish lot.

Have you ever noticed how their answer to everything is, “Is it?” If you say anything to them, “is it” is the only response they make:

“We had some nice rain last night.”  “Is it?”

“I’m not feeling too good.” “Is it?”

“I’ll be sixty-two tomorrow.”  “Is it?”

“Granny’s got piles.”  “Is it?”

“You’re a, real wanker.”  “Is it?”

Drives me crackers.

Another one they are fond of, is using the word “woman” as both singular and plural:

“I saw two woman walking down the street.” Sounds horrible don’t it? You listen out for it, in twenty years time, you’ll be as batty as me.

It’s not as if they make any money out of this working business. You take Erna there, that one yes; her with the scab on her chin. She not only gets nothing out of it, she calculated, a couple of months ago, that it costs her husband an extra two hundred rands a month to send her out to work: what with a second car; maid’s wages; crèches for the kids and lots of new clothes. This lot has filled her head with shit that she must spend at least two hundred rands a month on new clothes for work. Then there is the extra taxation. She seemed really proud that her husband has to work all the hours that God sends, including the Two Minutes Silence, in order to keep his wife at work:

“Doesn’t your husband mind paying so much money for the privilege of not having a wife at home and his kids being raised by strangers?”

“No” she said, (they wouldn’t recognise irony if they fell over it) “No. I told the doctor that if I stayed at home while all my friends were going out to work, I would have a nervous breakdown and so he told my husband that I had to go out to work for the good of my health.”

She gave a broken little laugh as she said this and all sorts of strange lights and facets came into her eyes. Have you ever noticed that about the Afrikaner women? They all have very hard eyes or neurotic ones. The hard-eyed ones give me the willies; when they smile, it never reaches their eyes. It’s not a smile so much as a rictus: like a pair of duelling pistols levelled over bared teeth. They seem to be aware of this problem and solve it by rarely smiling; a condition I can easily endure. If you ever see a warm or loving look in their eyes, shout Bingo.

Erna is one of the neurotic ones. I saw her eyes go all splintery like that, two months ago when the police rang her up to tell her that her husband had killed the two kids and then committed suicide. They’re always doing that these people, murdering their families and then themselves. One guy tracked down his five kids all over Brakpan and killed them all and his wife before doing himself in. It seems to be a popular pastime in this country and nearly always it’s an Afrikaner. Makes you wonder about those Voortrekkers they’re forever going on about, if these are their descendants: Richard says the word Voortrekker is the Afrikaans word for a guy who pulls his wire. I can well believe it.

I went with her in the car when we took her home.  Her husband answered the door, drunk, laughing and jabbering away in Afrikaans. Seems he had arranged for one of his mates to phone her; did it to pay her back for something or other. I can’t get worked up about these people; they always seem to me to be just overgrown kids, dressed up in their parent’s clothes and playing at life. Next morning, he dropped her off at work and they were all lovey-dovey, just like nothing had happened.

She’s tried to do herself in twice already and once I saw her jump in front of the M.D.’s car as he was driving off. After her second go, I told her:

“You’d better stop this suicide business or the first thing you know; you’ll ruin your health.”

Noel Coward actually, but I might just as well have saved my breath. She just looked at me blankly and then started to tell me how parents must never ever show love and affection to their sons or they will grow up to be homosexuals. A right head-banger.

But, if you think she’s whacko, just you take a look at Sarie there. That’s the one with the fat arse and glasses. Don’t look now, she’s picking her nose; yes, that one. She’d only been working here two days when she started in with John, the production manager. How he ever got involved with that old boiler, I’ll never know. I mean, John’s a fine looking feller and look at her. Well, look at her: face like a well-kept grave. With her colouring and that shade of lipstick, it looks like a plate of veal and tomatoes. Still, there is no accounting for taste as my sainted husband used to say, God rest his soul.

Well, we all knew straight away he was poking her: it was all around the foundry the same day they were found in the stock yard, having connections. Really! – right out there in the veldt and when they were caught they wouldn’t stop. Just went right on; at it like knives. It’s disgraceful, shouldn’t be allowed. A real hotbed of intrigue is this place; I mean to say, I’m not one to gossip but the things that’s going on here you wouldn’t believe.

Her husband found out about it; a little bird whispered in his ear. It could have been any one of them. They’re all like that, if someone else is getting something they aren’t, they eat their livers out. Anyway, he found out and there were ructions, let me tell you. He came to work this day, dragged her out of the office and gave her a kicking in the yard. She came back inside, roaring, with a nose on her like Beppo the Clown but the best part came later. She told me all about it, in confidence you understand. They belong to one of these weird, religious loud-praying sects; you know, all shouts and Hallelujahs and God-be-praised. I think they are called Bombay Revivalists or something like that. It’s an Afrikaner set-up (wouldn’t you know?) and all ,the Elders go around wearing black suits and homburgs and sporting fender bellies and Paul Kruger beards; you know, no moustache but plenty of hair flapping around their jaws.

He brought the minister of this Mickey-Mouse church to confront his wife. He tried to rope John in but John just told him to go and fuck his knuckles (‘scuse my French). The minister listened to her confession and declared she was Possessed of a Devil and what was needed was a Driving Out.

All the Elders and the minister went to the church with Sarie and her husband to drive the devils out of her. She had to stand naked, yes naked. No. I’m not joking: you ask her. She had to stand naked in the middle of this church with all these Elders traipsing around her in a circle, chanting and singing hymns and hallelujahing all over the place. Imagine, if you can bear it, all those bearded pot-bellied freaks playing Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses with old Bacon-Bum, standing there in her birthday suit in the middle of them all, wailing and crying, tearing her hair and beating her breasts (what there is of them). It’s enough to make a cat laugh – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, South African style. Then they all had to place a Bible under their right arms, take up a sjambok and beat her and then throw the sjambok onto the floor in front of the altar and shout – “Out, Satan out!”

Later, as a penance, her husband made her become a Sunday school teacher. She was telling me all about it. She said the Elders were so strict about Sunday school and Morality and everything that all the female teachers were required to wear dresses fastened right up to the neck and cover their arms down to their wrists:

“Is it?” she said, and tittered. Dim as a Toc-H lamp. I ask you? Why bother to pay good money to go to the movies when the Lord provides such entertainment, free?

She’s still pumping John but there’s no denying that she’s taken the rebuke to heart. She studies the Bible all the time now and she’s got, the Eleventh Commandment word perfect: thou shall not be found out. She was a terror before she got religion and now she’s a holy terror.

Ron Dennison

I hope that the people who read about the Stockton International Brigade memorial  – https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2023/06/02/the-stockton-memorial/ understand how much I appreciate what John Christie has done to educate people in the roles the men from Teesside  played in the Spanish Civil War. I hope he understands how much I appreciate him giving me the opportunity to undertake this voyage of discovery; researching and writing about the men and women from my hometown who went to the aid of the Spanish Republic and the victims of Franco’s armed revolt.

The voyage of discovery continues and at times gets spectacularly rewarding. I can hardly contain myself as I type this, I am  that excited about a wonderful discovery.  The most rewarding part of the research is uncovering the links and connections that allow us to connect the pieces to create a clearer picture. There is also the detective work; finding solutions to problems and revealing information that provide explanations for aspects which have until now been unknown.

Five years ago when we began work on the Stockton memorial we feared missing people off, we had a major headache over Norman Howard; in Spain it is recorded that his hometown was Stockton, but we could find no other details and after his repatriation in 1938 he disappears. George Short has Sedgefield as an address  for Norman Howard on his list of invitees to a commemorative dinner held  in October 1986 in The Billingham Arms Hotel to mark the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, but Norman Howard did not attend. Happily I have recently uncovered the curious story of  Norman Howard and will share this later, suffice to say he was born in Stanhope, so my anxiety about missing a volunteer can now end.

Four years ago when writing about the Teesside memorial I was intrigued by the fact that Tommy’s plaque says:

they went out to fight  . . . . . from TEES-SIDE

But three of the men listed on the memorial were not Teesside men: Ron Dennison was born in Bellingham, Northumberland, Bob Elliott was born in Cambois; between Ashington and Blyth and Wilf Jobling was born in Chopwell, the same town as George Short.

As Communist Party district secretary Wilf Jobling led the North East men in Spain before his death in February 1937, so too Bob Elliott, he was responsible for the North East men in Spain after Wilf’s death until his own in July 1937. We know that Wilf and Bob were well known to the Teesside Communists who produced the memorial, they worked very closely with George Short, giving us some explanation as to why they are named with the seven Teesside men.

Ron Dennison was the enigma, in Spain he used the alias ‘Bill Meredith’ where he is well documented, in I sing of my comrlades I say :

Bill Meredith, a well know activist from Tyneside, would later command No.2 Company.

 He was well know in Spain: he wrote the Battalion diary, he was promoted to Lieutenant and Commanded a Company; we have a document that shows he carried out his work diligently:

The 10 days in a labour battalion and the loss of five days pay seems pretty harsh when we compare this to Bert Overton’s punishment in the same month; Overton was demoted from Lieutenant and given 15 days in a labour  battalion for drawing the pay of a Captain whilst recovering from the wounds he sustained at the Battle of Jarama. Sadly whilst with the labour battalion Bert was killed, on 6th July 1937, during the battle of Brunete.

Like Overton Bill Meredith made quite an impression in Spain, he wrote the British Battalion diary which Frank Graham quotes extensively. During the Battle of Jarama Bill Meredith was a runner for the Machine-gun Company, he had been sent with a message by Harry Fry, the Company Commander, to Bert Overton who had taken command of the Battalion when Wintringham was wounded. In a first hand account he relates what he saw on his return; he was less than 200 metres away from the Machine-gun company:

As I came closer I was surprised to see a large contingent of fascists crossing the ground between them and ourselves, singing the Internationale and giving the anti-fascist clenched fist salute.
Battle of Jarama – Frank Graham

This is the story Thomas Carter, also of the Machine-gun company relates – https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2022/03/26/t-j-carter/

Bill Meredith can be seen in the British trenches after the Battle of Jarama:

By a remarkable coincidence Bill Meredith was also killed on 6th July 1937 during the battle of Brunete, Fred Copeman, who was commander of the British Battalion at the time describes it for the Daily Worker and later in his memoir.

A runner from No.2 company reported that Bill Meredith had been killed. I couldn’t believe it. I had only spoken to him a moment before. Bill was very sentimental but had a heart of gold. He was a member of the Labour Party, very conscientious, anxious to become a good officer, and even more anxious to make a contribution to the Republic. He had gone to help a wounded man lying in the road. Bending over in the semi-darkness, he received a bullet in the heart. The lad who reported it was sobbing like a kid. I didn’t feel at all nice myself. . . . A bloke was lying on the road calling. And by now the only light was the flames from the village. Bill Meredith went over to help him and it was one of these fascists, as old Bill bent over to help him the fascist shot him.
Reason in Revolt – Fred Copeman

‘Old Bill‘ was just twenty-four years old when he was killed. I found it curious that a man so renowned in Spain had left no trace back home in the North East. I was unable to find any references to Ron Dennison in archives, Copeman says he was a member of the Labour Party but his file in Spain shows he was a Communist Party (CPGB) member: this may explain why he used an alias. It is more than possible that the CPGB did not wish the Labour Party to know they had a Communist as a member, because The Labour Party were supporting the government policy of non-intervention, thus if Ron Dennison was a member of the Labour Party he was acting illegally as well as defying the proscription of Comminists which had been Labour Party policy since 1924. This did not however explain why a secret Communist from Tyneside was named on the Teesside memorial.

On  Thursday 29th June 2023 Bob Beagrie asked me to remind him which one of the Teesside volunteers was from Hartlepool, as I was at school I quickly replied that it was Thomas Carter and that I’d send some documents that evening because I had an obituary written for him by George Short which had fantastic detail. I had not looked at this obituary for some time so on sending it I began to reread it when a line caught my eye.

 “In a letter from his Commander, also of Teesside . . . “

This got me thinking, I knew of no company commanders in Spain at that time from Teesside except Bert Overton, and I was almost certain that Thomas Carter was not in Overton’s No.4 company. I had evidence that suggested he was in No.2 Company; the Machine Gun Company. Also Overton had not recruited by George Short, he had travelled to Spain with Tony Hyndman, a friend of Stephen Spender and Giles Romilly, I did not believe that George would be corresponding with Bert Overton. It wasn’t a good fit but Bert Overton was the only one of the ten Teesside men in Spain at this time and who would command a Company.

This worry encouraged me to look once again at Bill Meredith, he had arrived in Spain on 14th January and was promoted to Lieutenant after Jarama, he would command a  Company at Brunete, but he wasn’t from Teesside, he was however on the Teesside International Brigade memorial.

In October 2022 I visited Teesside Archives to Study the documents they had on George Short. Amongst these were notes Bert Ward had made of interviews of he had condicted with George Short; at one point Bert had asked George about the men on the Teesside memorial. I found that against Bill Meredith Bert had noted that George had said Ron Dennison had joined the Communist Party after he had been charged with obstruction during a demonstration and the Hartlepool Police had beaten him up, that he:

Owned a taxi fleet in Stockton that included Rolls Royces

This led me to check the births and baptisms in the civil register, I set the parameters pretty wide, selecting Dennison as a surname, and looking for any births between 1905 and 1918. I did not find a single registration of a birth for any child with the surname Dennison (or variations) in the whole of Northumberland. I did however find a cluster on Teesside and North Yorkshire. One very promising lead was a male J R Dennison born in Stockton on Tees in October 1912.

For the past six months Alan Lloyd has been updating the IBMT database (https://international-brigades.org.uk/uncategorized/the-volunteers/) produced by Jim Carmody and Richard Baxell in 2016.

Alan has already updated a few Teesside entries, in fact just a few weeks earlier I had noticed that Bill Meredith’s entry had been updated, the names Joseph ‘Ron’ Dennison had been added to his name (previously the name Ron Dennison was part of the footnotes), the name Joseph was something new. I asked him to double check the data that was used to create the entry and provided him with the circumstantial evidence I had uncovered.

I came home from work on Friday to find an email from Alan Lloyd:

I have had a look at my notes but heaven knows where I got Bellingham from. It is certainly SoT. 1912 Oct-Dec. Best wishes Alan

and then immediately updated the entry – https://international-brigades.org.uk/volunteer/josephdennisonmeredith/ how is that for service!

The town of Bellingham is shown on a silk banner produced in 1939, two banners were produced and showing the names of all the north East volunteers who lost their lives in Spain, they were displayed at Newcastle city Hall where Frank Graham led them the men.

Sadly one banner has been lost but one is in the Durham miners hall at Redhills, we think it may be the one with Meredith’s name on it. We can speculate that the error was made when the list of fallen was compiled after the repatriation of the British Battalion in December 1939 and has until now not been rectified.

Fresh from this confirmation of my hunch I,  for so some unknown reason, decided to check The Daily Worker and as seems to be the case when all the work has been done, I found an entry which confirms all our research. Not only that but we get a picture of Ron Dennison in Spain which I had not seen before, wearing his Lieutenant’s cap.

We were amazed to find eight volunteers from our borough of Stockton on Tees, but to find one from my town is something special, and Ron Dennison is very special. But that isn’t the end of the amazing coincidences. sending the newspaper to Linda Palfreeman I noticed that Ron Dennison was secretary for the Chiltons and St. Cuthberts’ Ward in Billingham. This is now Billingham South Ward which is the ward I live in and the Ward where Linda was born. It is speculation but, as my house was built in 1931,  it seems likely that Ron Dennison walked past my house and may have even knocked on the door canvassing for a  labour councillor.

One further mind blowing aspect is that when we look at the nine Stockton born volunteers, four were Lieutenants in the XV Brigade: Otto Estensen, Myles Harding, Bill Meredith and Bert Overton, the latter commanded the British Battalion for a significant period in the Battle of Jarama. I don’t think any other small area will have produced that number of officers, showing the quality of men from my region. The loss of such men supports George Short’s assertion that

we lost the flower of the party

I must thank Bob Beagrie for instigating my renewed research, Alan Lloyd, Marshall Mateer and Peter Verburgh for supporting my hunt and the numerous others I pestered whilst it dawned on me I was on the brink of a fantastic revelation.

UPDATE

I have started a funding campaign, although Ron Dennison is named on the Teesside international Brigade Memorial in Middlesbrough Town Hall (https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2021/02/22/teesside-ib-memorial/ ) this is not accessible to the general public and by rights, Ron Dennison should be on the Stockton memorial (https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2023/06/02/the-stockton-memorial/ ) but due to a spelling mistake, which dates back to 1939, he is not named on the Stockton memorial.

We would like to erect a memorial to Lieutenant Ron Dennison, a volunteer for Liberty who served his local community before losing his life fighting fascism in Spain, if you would like to support this initiative see – https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Ron-Dennison-Memorial

The Stockton International Brigade Memorial

Throughout the world there are many memorials to the International Brigade. Yet until 2022 there had been no public memorial to the International Brigade on Teesside, (there is one in Middlesbrough Town Hall but the public do not have access)

Thanks to John Christie this omission is now remedied. John says he grew up knowing nothing about the Teesside men who fought as volunteers in Spain with the International Brigade, but on becoming a member of The International Brigade Memorial Trust  he developed an interest in the Spanish Civil War.

It was back in April 2018 after the first performance of The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff by The Young’uns in Stockton’s Arc Theatre that John  was inspired to create a lasting memorial to the volunteers for liberty from his hometown of  Stockton-on Tees, he suggested a memorial should be erected to the men of Stockton who volunteered to fight fascism and served in the International Brigade. John runs The Golden Smog Pub and two others in Stockton, he started a fund raising campaign to raise £6,500 for a memorial. To accompany the memorial he asked me to produce a small leaflet with the names of the men and some details, however as lockdown halted the campaign I found we had some fascinating stories to accompany that of Johnny Longstaff, we felt these needed to be told also.

The Golden Smog, Stockton-on-Tees

Just a few months after John sent me on my quest I received a message from Liz Hayward, we’d worked together when she was education officer it  Ormesby Hall, she now worked for for Middlesbrough Council. The message said:
There is a plaque for the International Brigade in the Town Hall, nobody here knows anything about it, do you?

I had a copy of Williams, Alexander & Gorman’s book Memorials of the Spanish Civil War which gave me the basic story from which I could begin my investigation.

After a meeting in Middlesbrough Town Hall I was commissioned to produce a leaflet to inform visitors to the Town Hall on the Teesside International Brigade Memorial. I was now researching all the volunteers for liberty from Teesside. I was given six months to research and produce the leaflet, but as Lockdown occurred as we were about the launch it was decided to publish the leaflet online; you can find the leaflet HERE

My research brought me into contact with a number of people, possibly the most valuable was Martin Levy  of The Communist Party of Britain  for he put me in touch with a number of people who would prove to be invaluable.

Lockdown brought a halt to the Stockton Memorial campaign and hampered my research, but on 17th October 2020, a socially distanced ceremony took place.

The Volunteers for Liberty event was organised by the Communist Parties of Britain and Spain and the IBMT. As part of the Centenary celebrations for the founding of the Communist Party, on the anniversary of the last International Brigades parade in Spain, we commemorated the men and women who gave their lives for the Spanish Republic. Events were held in Cardiff, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Sheffield, Oxford, Cambridge, Crewe, Newcastle, Taunton and Southampton. Martin and myself organised two events, one in Newcastle and one on Teesside. At the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough  the names of seven Teesside men listed on the Teesside Memorial was read out.

In Middlesbrough Martin Levy spoke for the Communist Party of Britain, Julio Romero spoke for the Communist Party of Spain, I spoke for the International Brigade Memorial Trust and Bob Beagrie, a senior lecturer at Teesside University, read David Marshall’s I sing of my comrades and his own composition Vagabonds. After the reading of the names a minute’s silence was held, the wreath was later cast into the River Tees as a symbolic link between Teesside and Spain.

Lockdown meant that the April 2021 Local History month events were held online, and I gave a talk on the Teesside memorial, one of twenty talks I would give in the following two years.

In October 2021 the second of our Volunteers for liberty event took place, although we followed the same format  as 2020. My research meant that I was now in touch with  many more relatives of volunteers. Phil Saint, a nephew of Myles Harding, was one of the relatives who attended the ceremony. Also, there was Joan Harkin, a niece of Martin Durkin, along with her were her sister, three great-nieces, a great-nephew and a great-great-nephew of Mr Durkin: Barbara Christie, Mary-Lou Bell, Anna Guest; and Edel Christie and David Byrne. Both Myles Harding and Martin Durkin were killed in Spain in 1938. Sadly due to illness Sylvia Szintia, the niece of Herbert Hodgson was unable to attend. I was overjoyed that when I heard that the daughters of a Basque refugee  Fermin Magdalena would be attending, he and his brother and two sisters were evacuated from Bilbao on the Habana and eventually settled in the North East; I feel privileged to have met Julia, Sharon and Teresa, and that they are willing to share their stories with me.

In December 2021 we published I sing of my comrades the small leaflet had grown from the planned four sides of A5 to a 90 page book; and a book with very small print at that! As ever it was Gavin at MMD Media and Design who organised the editing, typesetting and printing. All proceeds from the sale of this book went to the funding campaign.

After The Golden Smog, the first place to stock the book was Drake the Bookshop. Mel and Richard have been hugely supportive, back in 2017 they sold the booklet Rosie and I hastily wrote as we began to investigate The Battle of Stockton. Now they offered me a book signing day in their wonderful shop, this took place in May 2022, just a few days after I had given another online talk for Local History month;  speaking on the eight men from Stockton-on-Tees who served in the XV International Brigade

We produced badges for sale, one for each of the men and a generic Stockton Brigadisas badge, the proceeds went to the Stockton memorial fund.

After their BBC Radio 3 performance in Stockton Arc Theatre on 17th March The Young’uns took 50 badges to sell on their tour, they also agreed to sell I sing of my comrades whilst on tour. We talked about them taking a dozen books, but in the end they took two dozen ‘just in case’. On 16th April 2022 they sold all of the badges and most of the books at their Sunderland gig and as a result ordered a further 100 badges for their forthcoming Canadian tour. At Leeds the next night they sold the four books  they had left over from their Sunderland gig –  in two days they sold the lot.

The funding campaign was enjoyable, not least the numerous talks I gave, and we got in the Papers: The Northern Echo and The Darlington and Stockton Times

The highlight for me, though, was The Golden Smog Warriors Basketball team campaign:

It was during the first Covid Lockdown in early 2020 that a small group of ‘Smoggies’; a magnificent seven regulars of the Golden Smog pub, began discussing a pub team, they needed a sport in which the team was small enough in numbers, they had just seven players after all. Discarding the clichéd five-a-side football they opted for Basketball. John, as ever, helped Martin Beall organise these magnificent seven, helping them acquire a strip and an identity – The Golden Smog Warriors were born.

In no time the seven became eighteen, enough for a second team. Martin then asked John if there was anything The Golden Smog Warriors could promote, Smoggies already do a lot for local causes. John suggested the Stockton memorial, because due to Covid the fundraising campaign for the memorial had come to a standstill, with just over £1,000 raised it needed a jump start.

By summer 2021 the UK began to emerge from lockdown and the time was ripe to launch The Golden Smog Warriors ‘Gold Strip’. Working with Baseline in Leeds June 2021 saw the release of a limited edition kit- featuring the colours of the Spanish Republic and the emblem of the international brigade. Baseline generously agreed to donate money from each sale to the fund, Martin says:

We knew we could sell at least twenty, if we made £5 from each sale we would raise £100 for the memorial, although we were hopeful we could persuade enough people to raise a further £100, little did we know how wrong we would be.

Within six weeks The Golden Smog Warriors had sold almost sixty of these ‘No Pasaran’  shirts. Most people would have been satisfied with that, but Martin works very hard, so he organised the very first Otto Estensen Trophy competition for 1st August 2021.

Initially the competition was between The Golden Smog Warriors and Stockton Shadows, a team who competed in the local league, but as news spread the Tees Valley Mohawks joined the competition; it was a sell-out. As Martin posted on Facebook:

We aimed to make £200

The 10 kits we thought we’d sell turned into nearly 70! With them going to places like New York, Spain, France, Norway and Sweden!

The Otto Estensen Trophy event – 2 teams from the Smog and 2 local teams in Stockton Shadows and Tees Valley Mohawks kindly signed up bringing officials and spectators – it was a sell out!

3 exciting games later Tees Valley Mohawks were crowned the first ever Otto Estensen Trophy winners!

And now the most important thing….

Smashing that target of £200 we are over the moon to announce that thanks to all the support the money we have raised for the fund is a staggering…… £911!!! (August 2021)

The Shirts continued to sell at an amazing rate, and people began to post pictures of themselves proudly wearing it. By the time the sale of the shirt was discontinued, in September 2022, well over five hundred shirts had been sold.

The Otto Estensen Trophy events also continued, on 21st August 2022 the second competition was held, with a special guest: John Sutherland, the nephew of Otto Estensen, tipped off the first game of the competition and awarded the Trophy to the winning team; the Tees Valley Mohawks who retained the Trophy.

It was not just the money raised by The Golden Smog Warriors, it was also the publicity that they brought to the campaign, the images of the players in their International Brigade strip caught the attention of people from all over the world, who then contacted us about the memorial, and many ordered a copy of the book.A copy of I sing of my Comrades in Madrid

When the Miners’ Gala returned on 9th July 2022, after a three-year absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was the biggest Gala in decades with more than 200,000 attending. Parading proudly with the International Brigade Memorial Trust’s British Battalion banner was John, Martin and a half dozen players all in their No Pasaran Gold kit, and what a reception they received from the crowds lining the parade.

The Golden Smog Warriors went from strength to strength, they grew strong enough to compete in the Teesside League, in early 2023 they have thirty-six players who compete in two teams; Black and Gold. Sadly women are not allowed to compete in the same team as men in league games, which means that The Golden Smog Warriors formed a women’s team in early 2023, which had twenty players in May 2023 when it was announced that they would be admitted into the league for the 2023/24 season.

On 16th September 2022 John’s dream became reality; The Stockton International Brigade Memorial was erected for all the world to see. Congratulations John, but John, a wonderfully modest man, will be the first to say it was a team effort and that it would not have been possible without the support of his friends:

The Smoggies (regulars who frequent The Golden Smog, especially Martin and Adam of the Golden Smog Warriors Basketball,
Simon Tallon,
The relatives of the volunteers; Elizabeth Estensen and Phil Saint.
Robbie Macdonald and the 150+ individuals and organisations who supported the Justgiving fund.
Mark Oreilly for helping with design, procurement and just about everything to do with the amazing outer frame.

On 23rd September 2022 Katie Quigley sent me a message:

Nana was very touched to see the memorial for her uncle Patrick Maroney

This was really exciting news as I had been unable to trace relatives of five of the men listed on the memorial, Patrick Maroney was one of them. We were now in touch with the families of four of the men: – Otto Estensen, Myles Harding, Johnny Longstaff and now Patrick Maroney.

On Friday 21st October 2022 in Middlesbrough Town Hall council chamber I gave a talk on the The Teesside International Brigade Memorial, finally coming face to face with Tommy’s plaque.

Just two days later, on Sunday 23rd October we held our annual Volunteers for liberty event. The weather was not too kind, which meant drastically reduced numbers. We saw the  return of Julio Romero who spoke for the Communist Party of Spain,  with Bethan Blake speaking on behalf of the Communist Party of Britain Bob Beagrie again performed two of his poems from his collection looking at the Volunteers for Liberty.

With the new memorial in place, after the wreath was cast into the Tees we headed to The Wasps Nest Pub in Stockton to dry out. It was my absolute pleasure to finally meet George Short, the son of George and Phyllis Short, it became quite emotional speaking about the volunteers and the work of George and Phyllis. We then visited the Market Cross; site of the 1933 ‘battles’, the Battle of Stockton Cross and The Battle of Stockton. We then headed to the Golden Smog where the Short family thanked John for his hard work.
In November 2022 The Young’uns took The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff to Canada, meeting our good friend Janette Higgins and selling the Stockton Brigadistas badges featuring Johnny Longstaff. You can see Sean being interviewed on local television here

At 11am on 12th February 2023 we assembled at the Stockton memorial to commemorate the British Battalion and the men from Teesside who lost their lives at Jarama, a report can be found here.

Five years after that performance in The ARC theatre, on Sunday 23rd April 2023, the eight volunteers were commemorated at the official dedication of the new Stockton International Brigade memorial which is located at the Wasp’s Nest Yard, off Stockton’s High Street.

Relatives of International Brigade volunteers travelled from across Britain and Ireland to take part in the dedication events. Among them was actress Elizabeth Estensen, daughter of Otto Estensen, he served in the XV Brigade anti-tank battery. Elizabeth is possibly best-known as Diane Sugden in the ITV drama Emmerdale. But she has also played leading roles in The Liver Birds and T-Bag. On the Friday she visited John Christie’s Golden Smog pub, which has a wealth of Teesside and International Brigade memorabilia, and pulled a few pints – just like the her days on Emmerdale.

The first in a series of events to mark the dedication of the memorial was a very special Otto Estensen Trophy competition. John Sutherland again tipped off the competition and the winners of the 2023 competition were awarded The Otto Estensen Trophy by Elizabeth herself.

The Trophy competition was also special as it marked the first appearance of a new Golden Smog Warriors strip. For the 2023/4 season Martin designed a new Golden Smog Warriors strip; this time it was to be a team strip not for fundraising. Keeping the Black of the Warriors’ original strip he incorporated elements from the fund raising ‘No Pasaran’ Gold shirt, and keeping true to their home, The Golden Smog, it features ‘The Alley’ as a front logo.

I love this picture taken by Gillian of Circles and Shadows Photography – https://circlesandshadowsphotography.co.uk/
If you get the chance go to https://ourimagenation.com/…/circles-and-shadows…/ have a look at her magnificent body of work and maybe even buy a work of art. I love how her image captures the new shirt, showing the popular front salute and No Pasaran logos at the top and the names of the eight volunteers at the bottom. What enriches the picture for me is the image of Adam ensuring ‘they shall not pass’ in his fund raising No Pasaran shirt; Adam supported Martin’s idea for the shirt and helped with designing this  awe-inspiring visual masterpiece, a video of the strip can be found hereLater, Elizabeth and John joined other relatives and memorial campaign supporters for the procession to Stockton’s Market Cross.

Other relatives processing included George Short and Alan Short, the son and grandson respectively of George Short, who as the Communist Party’s Teesside secretary in the 1930s organised the International Brigade volunteers we were commemorating.

Alan Short, Nic Maroney, Mich Maroney, Barbara Sneath, Katie Quigley, Chris Hill and George Short.

Mich Maroney travelled from Ireland and Nic Maroney from London to join Chris Hill, Barbara Sneath and Katie Quigley. All five are relatives of Patrick Maroney. They only discovered Patrick’s role in Spain after the Stockton memorial was installed in autumn 2022. Sadly, the nephew of Myles Harding, Phil Saint and Duncan Longstaff, son of Johnny Longstaff, were unable to attend the dedication day.

Fittingly it was The Golden Smog Warriors who led the town procession to the Market Cross, where attendees heard about the April 1933 arrest of George and Phyllis Short at the Market Cross and the ‘Battle of Stockton’ (September 1933) – the George Short organised demonstration against the British Union of Fascists (BUF) which is marked by a commemorative plaque at the Market Cross.

After a minute’s silence to remember the British volunteers who did not return from Spain, the assembly sang the reunion version of Jarama Valley.At the Wasp’s Nest Yard, the new memorial was formally dedicated. People heard that both Wilf Cowan and Otto Estensen arrived in Spain in April 1937, and poignantly that Guernica was attacked days later on 26th April 1937; a magnificent reworking of Picasso’s iconic painting by designers Abby Taylor and Owen Smith is the heart of the Stockton memorial.

The poem ‘Our Open Eyes’ by Mike Wild was read; a line of this poem is quoted on the memorial’s information plate. Mike’s father, Sam Wild, commanded the British Battalion volunteers.

Ron Brown of the Communist Party of Britain concluded the dedication ceremony. He commended the Stockton memorial campaign group for raising awareness of the men locally and nationally and spoke of their legacy.

The Evening activities at the Georgian Theatre started with pies and peas from John Buckle, Stockton’s premier pie man, see JUSTLOVEPIES.co.uk for details

Elizabeth Estensen, George and Alan Short and Katie Quigley spoke on stage about their relatives. Elizabeth spoke of her father and his comrade Tommy Chilvers, both George and Alan Short knew them. George spoke emotionally on the love and humanity that his parents and the volunteers showed to him. Katie spoke equally emotionally on her family’s pride on having such a heroic relative.

A remarkable coincidence came to light at this part of the evening. It was said that in July 1937, British officials at MI5 intercepted a letter from George Short to Patrick Maroney. Patrick had just returned from Spain and George was asking for information on Tommy Chilvers and Otto Estensen, who were still in Spain.

The audience were then treated to a superb talk by memorial designers Abby Taylor and Owen Smith, they described the fund-raising campaign, their design process and key aspects of Picasso’s masterpiece.  See information here – https://abbyandowen.com/stockton-international-brigaders-memorial

Peter Widlinski, an IBMT member, spoke on behalf of Duncan Longstaff, the son of Johnny Longstaff,  he described Johnny’s  Second World War service.

A short film was then shown, a new documentary under production about Tommy Chilvers, Otto’s closest friend and fellow member of the XV International Brigade anti-tank battery.

The Georgian Theatre evening finished with music, songs and poetry from the Smog Singers (a group of regulars from The Golden Smog) and Bob Beagrie a poet, playwright and Teesside University Senior lecturer.

Bob regularly reads his poems at Teesside International Brigade events, he and Project Lono have just produced a new sequence of soundscapes; bringing to life Bob’s poems about the Spanish Civil War and International Brigaders. One example, Romanceros can be found here. The collection of poems will be published by Drunk Muse Press in a book entitled ‘Romanceros‘, due out spring 2024.

The evening ended with toasts to John Christie in The Golden Smog, for doing so much to raise awareness of the volunteers for liberty, for starting this incredible journey and for being an all round nice guy.

 

 

 

 

 

The Secrets of Rochester Place

At the end of January, as I was preparing for the Battle of Jarama commemoration I received a message from Sharon:

A friend of my nieces has written her 5th novel, she also writes under the name Nuala Casey, (she is Luke Casey’s daughter) and Nuala Ellwood and this one was under Iris Costello, as it’s a different genre.
The book was The Secrets of Rochester Place . Sharon holds a special place in my heart as she has provided me with a wonderful link to a fascinating chapter in local history, for she is the daughter of Fermin Magdalena; a Basque Refugee who with his brother and two sisters was cared for at Hutton Hall. Julia,  Sharon and Teresa have shared material with me and attended our 2021 Volunteers for Liberty event; they can be seen chatting to me at the event below.
The reason why Sharon was recommending this book in particular is made clear in the acknowledgements :
Nuala has used Fermin’s memories to enrich the character of Teresa, whilst Firmin was settled in the Colony at Hutton Hall, the fictional Teresa is evacuated to London in the wake of the Guernica bombing, eventually finding safety in Rochester Place.  It is a credit to the author that the character of Teresa is such a wonderful representation of a Basque child refugee, Nuala has managed to highlight the myriad of concerns,  challenges and difficulties they faced.

For me Teresa’s story was, of the four intertwined stories, at first the most of interest to me, but that may be because I had invested more into this story thread previously, however the skillful way in which Nuala has woven the four main strands together is the highlight of this wonderful book, quite rapidly I was absorbed into the other three threads. I did not feel, at any point, that the places where the stories touched and linked were contrived or forced, the changes in location or storyline I felt created unsettling changes in pace, which fits the mystery aspect very well. The reader is never comfortable that they have the full picture; there is always a feeling that you are missing out on something, there is a gap in knowledge and this feeling remains right up until the final resolution.

The primary story is that of Corrine, it is set in present day Tooting, where Corrine is an emergency call handler, taking calls from people who need help and talking them through it until the emergency services arrive.  The book starts with one call she gets that is very different  to others, one that stays with her. It’s from a woman called Mary, asking her to save her daughter who is trapped at Rochester Place but when the emergency services get there there’s no sign of Mary, and even more mysteriously Rochester Place is also not there.  Corinne is used to hoaxes but something feels different about this one. The choice of Tooting was quite evocative, as Ta-ra to Tooting  is possibly the most emotional song in The Young’uns The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff.  and you should know by now what that started!

The third story strand is that of Mary, an Irishwoman trying to make her way in the world and in particular carefully make her way in an England which has no linking for Women or the Irish. I feel that it was this character, of the three women, to which Nuala most readily associated herself.

As Sharon had explained Nuala was the daughter of the much loved Journalist and broadcaster Luke Casey, which brings me to why this book resonated so much with me. Luke Casey was born in Ballina, County Mayo, which explains the background given to the character of Mary.

By coincidence I’m currently working on a book about Sam Wild and his mother, Mary Ann McGrail, was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, just ten miles from Ballina, I’m therefore researching this area. Hence as I was reading about the fictional character of Mary from County Mayo and her experiences in England I was writing about a Mary McGrail from County Mayo who travelled to England a decade before her fictional namesake. Obviously this further added to my enjoyment of this fabulous book.

Image from Drake the Bookshop

The coincidences just kept piling up, for Nuala chose to launch The Secrets of Rochester Place at Drake the Bookshop, which as everyone knows is the finest Bookshop in the North of England, and is in Silver Street, Stockton. Sadly I missed this launch event on 15th December 2022. A further coincidence is that it was in Stockton that Luke Casey began his journalistic career; in 1956, having only been in England for two years he started work as a junior reporter on the Northern Echo in their Stockton Office. It was also in this Stockton Office that Luke met Nuala’s mother Mavis, Luke and Mavis had been married sixty three years when Luke died on 31st October 2022; a matter of weeks before the launch of this book in Stockton.

The fourth strand, the story of Rochester Place is hugely evocative of the period, highlighting the affluence of a small number in the inter-war years, which only accentuates the inequality of the times: being aware of and writing on the National Hunger Marches, the reports from Stockton’s Dr M’Gonigle  and the work of George and Phyllis Short I found the contrast with the picture of Rochester Place jarring, which only served to underscore the sense of unease the mystery created.

I try to vary my reading , as I have had a vastly unbalanced bias towards the Spanish Civil War over the past five years. I have read some exceptional books in that time and this book ranks highly. For many reasons this book is very very special, and for this reason it is difficult to portray it’s outstanding quality  – I cannot recommend this book more highly. I think people should read this book – this is the reason I have not talked about the plot lines. It is beautifully written, with a wealth of detail presented in a subtle way, in fact I feel that each storyline could hold up alone, which makes the intertwining and final culmination of the stories so substantial. It will appeal to a very wide audience: those interested in mysteries, those with an interest in the Spanish Civil War and the Basque refugees, those with an interest in Irish History and those with an interest in historical fiction will find this of special interest. However I think this would appeal equally to readers without a special interest in an aspect of the story lines.

When you look to get a copy (note I don’t say ‘if’) please consider getting it from Drake the Bookshop:this can be done by using this link I’m certain you will love this book as much as I do.

 

 

 

 

Uncle Alec, a heroic nobody from the back streets of Hulme

In June 2021 I posted a Guest post by the late, great David Walsh (see below), almost two years later I present another, this time from Katie Armstrong.

The school strikes of 1911

To put this piece in context we need to go back to the end of 2022, when I spotted a post on The International Brigades remembered page asking if anyone had any information on an Alexander Armstrong who had died in Spain.

I was able to respond as at the time I was working with Mike Crowley and Mike Wild on the twenty two men who were on the 1932 Mass Trespass who later went to Spain.  We gave a talk at the IBMT AGM (Report Here).

Katie attendeded, bringing with her a picture we knew was her Uncle Alec.

As you’ll see many people helped her with her research, it was a pleasure to be a part of her wonderful journey of discovery.

 

Families are funny things. You wonder how they can possibly fall apart, but suddenly whole chunks of history disappear. Like a cliff face sliding into the sea, the landscape quickly changes and no one remembers quite how it was before.  We lost my grandad to some scandal when my father was in nappies. Consequently we never knew, or even talked much of, that side of the family. It wasn’t till I was browsing on one of those find your family tree sites, that I discovered a whole raft of relatives, including a grand uncle Alexander who died in Spain.

Now my family tree is stumpy and stunted. An amorphous mass of mill and cannon fodder, working hard in unremarkable jobs, drifting from country to city, to live in slums that have long since been cleared.  My origins are plebeian to say the least, so I very much doubted Alexander expired from consuming bad oysters on a Mediterranean beach holiday. So what was he doing there? More research and Find My Past revealed that an Alexander Armstrong from Manchester was killed in February 1937, in Jarama. He was listed as a British Casualty of the Spanish Civil War.

Which was almost as unbelievable as the bad oyster. I mean – how could I not know that? On asking, murky family memories resurfaced – yes there had been talk of an Uncle Alec who had died fighting.

It wasn’t until google led me to the International Brigade Memorial Trust that I really got a picture of who Alec was. Both literally and figuratively.

The Trust of course celebrates the lives of those who went to Spain to defend democracy and fight fascism. It also is a great research resource. Archivist Jim Carmody and historian Richard Baxell have built a data base of as many of the volunteers on whom they can find information. An epic project.  Luckily for me Alexander Armstrong was listed amongst them. Sadly there wasn’t much more personal information but I now knew he was a communist, a volunteer in the International Brigade and fighting on the right side.

From Britain alone 2,550 men volunteered.  And while that number includes some famous names and well connected, upper-class communists most of the British volunteers were working-class men, with an average age 29, from the big industrial cities. Men who left hard jobs to go to and fight a hard fight. Men like uncle Alec.

Born in 1909 in Manchester, Alexander was the 7th of the Armstrong children. His father worked in various jobs, from hoist man to labourer, to keep his large family. But like so many in Manchester in the depression, he was in and out of work. Even at the best of times money was short. The family lived in Hulme, in a small rented house, one of the sprawl of gerry-built terraces. Alec left school young and went to work as a roofer. He too was often unemployed.  He was 25 when he went to Spain. He was one of the 540 volunteers killed out there.

The database biographies of those volunteers are often little more than a few lines. Nobodies like my family often don’t have much in the way of a tangible history. Certainly Alexander’s is sparse. But the Trust records what it can and is a memorial to those who would otherwise be unknown. For which I am extremely grateful. But more than that it is a catalyst.  Those scanty biographies of working class men and women who charged off to fight a fight that wasn’t theirs only raise more questions. And the trust attracts writers and historians  and any one else wanting answers. So thank you Delores (of the Trust) for introducing me to Mike Crowley, Tony Fox, Mike Wild and Stuart Walsh who were kind enough to talk to me through their research.

What emerges is a mosaic of Mancunian activism, of protest marches, speedway riders, communism and clashes with the facist Blackshirts. It became apparent that there were multiple connections and interactions.  Some who went to fight in Spain , were also members of the Young Communist League. Others were on the famous 1934 Kinder Mass Trespass  protesting the landowner limitations to ramblers right to roam on Kinder Scout. They were marching alongside  The British Workers Sports Federation, and  members of the street theatre troop the Red Megaphones  – “Our theatre awakens the masses !” And some like Alex did it all.

Eddie Frow, a contemporary, writes  that Alec radiated enthusiasm for the cause and there can be no doubt that he was keen as mustard. He was a member of all the major organisations, went on camps, rambled, leapt fawn like while developing his theatre skills, protested unemployment and of course eventually went to fight and die in Spain. He died so young that he is very much a footnote in other longer histories, but he casts a shadow. Jimmie Miller, (Ewan Maccoll), folk singer and fellow activist writes of Alec in his autobiography, he features in the Greenwood book ,“Love On The Dole,” and MI5 rather more dourly record his activities. He appears in letters home from Spain, and there is an audio account of him walking to his death by the man who saw him do it.  If you know where to look, there are numerous snippets of information to be found and a flickering picture of Alec develops.  Of course I would never have known where to look  if I hadn’t been helped by people who did.

And yes, the Trust literally had a picture of Alec. There’s a famous photo taken at the Kinder Trespass in 1932. It show a group of jubilant young men and women striding forth to reclaim the moors. It was displayed at the Kinder Trespass 90th Anniversary event in April 2022.  A visitor, a middle-aged man pointed to a figure in the image and told Mike Wild that that was his Uncle Alec. He then disappeared back into the throng without leaving a name. As with so much of Alec’s history – another tantalising glimpse!  But it reminded me that there very likely were living relatives. I was determined to track him down. Well I haven’t yet , but I did find other relatives and  I now have a verified photo of Alec.

Alec died on February 12th, killed in the bloody massacre that was the first day of the Battle of Jarama. His body was never found. There is no grave. His bones are likely scattered in the olive groves. Families can so easily fragment, people disappear their history forgotten and the voices of ordinary people are so often unheard.  But thanks to the International Brigade Memorial Trust,  and all those who work alongside them,  Alexander Armstrong, Uncle Alec, a heroic nobody from the back streets of Hulme , is remembered and celebrated. On a personal level I now know more about him then I ever thought possible. On a practical level, in terms of social history, this extra-ordinary, extraordinary story is preserved for posterity.

I am still researching Alec’s history and if anyone wants to contact me they can get me at plasticisrubbish@yahoo.co.uk

Salud Comrades.

With thanks to

Kate Armstrong

Stockton’s Jarama Commemoration 2023

On 12th February the British Battalion were to face Franco’s ‘moors’ of the Army of Africa who were spearheading the Nationalist advance. The XV Brigade were told to take up positions facing the Jarama River. Positioned on the far left was the Spanish XXI Battalion, then the British, the French-Belgian Battalion and finally the Dimitrov Battalion on the far right of the defensive line; the Lincoln Battalion was stationed behind the Dimitrov’s in reserve.

The 15th Brigade ran straight into Moroccan troops of the Rebel 2nd Brigade under Colonel Sáenz de Buruaga, which had crossed the Pindoque bridge after Barrón and moved rapidly south. Attempting to defend a series of rolling hills and knolls, the British battalion was outflanked and utterly decimated by the advancing Moroccan Regulares, with the French and Balkan units also soon retreating desperately for Hill 700 to the northeast, where they linked up with the 11th Brigade. For the British, attempting to hold ‘Suicide Hill’, this first day of combat was the very definition of a baptism of fire.
Fighting for Spain – Alexander Clifford.

[Extract from I sing of my comrades: remembering Stockton’s International Brigaders]

At 11am on 12th February 2023 we assembed to commemorate the British Battalion and the men from Teesside we lost their lives at Jarama.

On the 12th February 1937 the British Battalion of the XV International Brigade faced it’s first battle, by the evening of the first day the 600 strong Battalion had been reduced to 250 men. In the Afternoon of 13th February Bert Overton of Stockton took command of the British Battalion and led them until reinforcements arrived on the morning of the 14th February.

Four Teesside volunteers lost their lives at Jarama; George Bright and David Halloran were killed in battle, whilst Thomas Carter and John Unthank died as a result of wounds sustained in the Battle.

George Brown was the Communist Party District secretary for Lancashire, like George Short he approved the volunteers for Spain, one such was Sam Wild, who would later Command the British Battalion. The words of Sam’s son, Mike; “Our open eyes could see no other way” accompanies our memorial.

George Brown, who was killed in the Battle of Brunette in July 1937 wrote a report of the British Battalion’s commemoration of the Jarama fallen.

This report was read out to those assembled to commemorate the volunteers for liberty. George Brown reports on the memorial service held by the members of the British Battalion in Apri 1937. four of the Stockton volunteers will have taken part in the memorial service, with a fifth, George Bright being commemorated.

On the afternoon of 29th April only a few of the comrades of the Battalion are in the trenches keeping guard. The rest are a few yards behind the trenches, lined up in military formation. They are holding a memorial service to their comrades who have fallen in this sector and whose rough made graves are all around. George Brown April 1937

George Brown goes on to quote from George Aitken who had recently been promoted to XV International Brigade Commissar from the British Battalion Commissar.

“They were our Friends” he says, “We had come to know then intimately. They shared our joys and sorrows in the days of training. They fought side by side with us in fierce battles. They lived with us day and night in the trenches, shared the same dug-outs, stood on guard by our side, shivered with us in the cold nights and huddled close to us when on many a night the rain poured down in torrents. How could we help growing fond of them and sorrowing at their passing. They lie here now sleeping their long last sleep.” George Brown April 1937

After flowers were lain at the memorial a minutes silence was held.

Bob Beagrie has been a constant at our Volunteers for liberty events, and once again he graciously agreed to read the poetry at Stockton’s Jarama commemoration.

Dr Bob read – To England from the English Dead, written by Miles Tomalin

  • We, who were English once had eyes and saw
  • The savage greed of those who made this war
  • Tear up from earth, like a hog loose in flowers
  • So many lives as young and strong as ours,
  • You, England, stood apart from Spain’s affair,
  • You said you were secure in sea and cliff
  • While others sank in filthy war, as if
  • You kept some old virginity in there.
  • While the black armies marched and the dead fell,
  • You told your English people all was well,
  • And shutting eyes to war was finding peace.
  • You told them once, all slavery must cease.
  • Dishonourable England!
  • We in Spain who died, died proudly, but not in your name;
  • Our friends will keep the love we felt for you
  • Among your most green landscapes and smooth hills,
  • Talk of it over honest window sills
  • And teach our children we were not untrue.
  • Not for those others, more like alien men
  • Who, quick to please our slayers, let them pass,
  • Not for them
  • We English lie beneath the Spanish grass.

Miles Tomalin served in the XV International Brigade anti-tank battery alongside Teesside volunteers Tommy Chilvers and Otto Estensen, famously Miles can be seen playing his recorder in the iconic anti-tank picture which also shows Otto playing his Mandolin.

Then Bob read his own composition Vagabonds, which begins with a quote from Laurie Lee, who served in the British Battalion.

‘We were an uneven lot, large and small, mostly young, hollow-cheeked, ragged, pale, the sons of depressed and uneasy Europe’ Laurie Lee – A Moment of War

  • Inconvenient on home turf with your unsavoury beliefs
  • but far from unloved. Invisible only
  • to those with titles and a seat at the table.
  • Unexpected, you came to lend a hand. Smuggled
  • over borders that turned a blind eye, drawn
  • to so much rawness in vineyards and olive groves
  • torn from the soft hands of gentlemen.
  • You composed anthems
  • for your blacklisted histories,
  • I recognise those tunes.
  • Snows melt on the Sierra. Battle lines
  • scribbled on archaic maps. The evenings full
  • of flambéed voices on radio broadcasts
  • from underground bunkers.
  • You lived afterwards and always
  • as Christ in the winepress
  • under a corpse-soiled shawl of suspicion.
Dr Bob has just released his latest publication – The Last Almanac, which can be found at https://www.waterstones.com/author/bob-beagrie/314895 along with his previous works.
The commemoration finale was a rousing rendition of  the Peter Seegar version of Jarama Valley. This was performed by a group of The Golden Smog  regulars who were performing together for the first time.
Tom – Drums
Alan – Harmonics/vocals
Craig – Guitar
Chris – Mandolin
Jo – Vocals
Kaz – Vocals
They go by various names: the Smog singers, Roc Co Co, Smogtasia and some best left unmentioned, but one thing not in doubt was their superb performance. It can be seen on The Golden Smog Basketball team Facebook page here – https://www.facebook.com/goldensmogbasketball/videos/582025230472443/
Martin Beall and John Christie of the Golden Smog Warriors have made a huge contribution to the Stockton IB memorial, in fact without them it would not be here. Martin spoke of the Golden Smog Warriors, how they had been inspired by the Volunteers, saying:
We are very proud of the part we’ve played in remembering these remarkable local people.

Martin then explained that at Stockton Sixth Form College the GSW Gold team were to face Stockton Shadows in the Durham league. The tip was at 1:15pm. The team were proud to wear the Spanish (Gold) kit and were to have a moment of applause for George, David, Thomas and John before tip.

As always entrance was free and there was free tea and coffee, and especially for the occassion free cake.
We now look forward to the dedication of our memorial on Sunday 23rd April 2023 –https://fb.me/e/1VYSvzwu3

 

Bert Overton in Spain

On 25th November Richard Harris posted a picture on the International Brigades Remembered Facebook page .

Richard added –

I just came across this picture of my father after he was wounded at the Battle of Jarama on Feb. 26, 1937. If I’m not mistaken, it looks like Robert Merriman to my father’s left side.

Robert Hale Merriman, the Chief of Staff of the XV International Brigade, disappeared behind enemy lines in a desperate attempt to escape encirclement during the great Retreats in the early spring of 1938. His body was never recovered, which has led to an an air of mystery as to what happened to him in his last campaign. A consensus has emerged that suggests that Merriman was killed outright or was captured and executed later.

I think you will agree with Richard that it is indeed Bob Merriman; who’s arm was in a cast at the time, seated next to his father Aaron Harris .

The wonderful thing about the International Brigades Remembered Facebook page  is that people add to and enrich the posts, this was the case here. Ray Hoff in America discussed the image with Mercedes Nicolás in Spain  with a view to finding the location and date.

Mercedes Nicolás explained:

I have asked the compañeras and compañeros of the Murcia Historical Memory Association and we believe that the photo was taken in front of the Pasionaria Hospital, almost at the door. In that area, in the Parque de Ruiz Hidalgo, the fair was installed in Murcia since 1929. The building that is seen behind must be what we know here as “el Martillo”, it is part of the Episcopal Palace of Murcia.[Tranlated from the Spanish]

The building on the left of the picture is the one that can be seen behind the ferris wheel.  With the location established the next question was – why a ferris wheel. Again Mercedes Nicolás and
Ray Hoff  provided the answer.
Ray Hoff  used Bob Merriman’s diary to find a date, as he transcribed it we can trust his interpretation.
Ray said :
While this says 19/20 March, those were the dates in Merriman’s diary but he wrote across many pages after February 27 and did not catch up his story until March 29, so the dates are jumbled. The statement on March 20 says that he met Overton on the 15th or before. For several days, Merriman and Bob Thompson were touring Murcia waiting for Marion Merriman to arrive (she’d been sent for on March 4). If this photo was taken after Marion arrived, it could be any time up to the 30th. Santa Semana was the week of March 21-28 and there may have been a fair or festival in Murcia that week. A newspaper from Murcia might determine whether a ferris wheel was in town that week. Milly Bennett was also in Murcia and as a newspaperwoman, it is possible she might have taken this photo. Also Kate Mangan was there.
Richard Harris provided an extract from his father’s diary to give us a much more accurate date of 28th February.
We know that Bert Overton was wounded on 12th February but refused to leave the lines, that Tom Wintringham  handed over command of the British Battalion to Bert Overton on the evening of the 13th February after Wintringham was unable to command due to the self-inflicted wound. Overton was wounded again leading the rescue of the Machine gun company but did not relinquish command until the following morning when Jock Cunningham took command on the morning of the 14th February. The Battalion Commissar George Aitken reported that Overton organised the defences in the morning, after first having had his wounded hand treated overnight. The Report ends by telling us that Overton was wounded once again:
‘In the retreats which took place on the 3rd day.’
This is why Bert Overton was in Benicassim hospital. We already have an image of Bert Overton in Hospital, provided by Mike Wild 
This new image of him in Spain is a wonderful discovery, not only is it much clearer but we have a certain date.  It also provides greater depth to the story of Overton’s cap.  Previously Ray Hoff
had said that:
At that time, Merriman was really interested only in getting Overton’s officer’s cap.
Merriman had been recently promoted to Lieutenant, a rank Overton held, Merriman was without a Lieutenant’s cap and was visiting the Benicassim hospital in order to get the cap from Overton. On 29th May 1937 Merriman records in his diary:
Talked with Lamotte about Overton because I wanted his hat.
This image provided by Richard Harris suggests that Merriman and Overton had met long before Merriman tried to get his cap, and it shows that it was not at the hospital that Merriman asked for the cap.  What is also intriguing is that Overton’s report on the Battle of Jarama; in which he is highly critical of Tom Wintringham, is dated 27th February 1937. Could it be possible he discussed this with Bob Merriman who was now on the Brigade staff?
Both Bob Merriman and Bert Overton were out of hospital and had returned to their units by the end of March. It was therefore much later, whilst the British and American Units were re-equipping and training,  that Merriman  did get Overton’s cap, his diary entry for 30th May 1937 states:
Got hat off Overton this morning, who was arrested last night.
Bert Overton was arrested and charged with drawing the pay of a Captain three months earlier, whilst he was in Benicassim hospital. Merriman’s diary entry continues:
Rose at 600, went to B. I. club and came out to camp in Political Commissar car. Arrived in camp with new uniform
and just in time to hear plans for the day. [30th May]

It is this new uniform, with the addition of Overton’s cap that we can see in the photograph of Bob Merriman.

The mystery surrounding Overton continues, a month later he gets a rather cryptic reference in Merriman’s diary.

13 Junio                    S. Antonio de Padua
Rose and had sessions with boys. Battalion voted to help
popular front and went out into fields. Discussed work with
Bob & Joe. Tried several comrades and talked with Hyde.
Left after lunch for Pozo Rubio. Got to Tarazona and went
for Schrenzel and Matilda invited us to stay and have wine
and cakes. She had pictures of Overton & others. She is to
be thrown out of house after 14 yrs. Wrote note for her.
Left with seven in car for Pozo Rubio and planned problem
for tomorrow. Played horse shoes.

It is understandable that Merriman would try to help Matilda who had been evicted, especially after she had provided him with wine and cake, but why did he feel the need to mention she ‘had pictures of Overton & others.’?  Could the picture that Richard Harris has presented be one of the pictures that Matilda showed to Bob Merriman in June? If so it would certainly raise questions which Merriman would not like.

But this is speculation, what we do have is a fantastic record, an image of Bert Overton Arron Harris and Bob Merriman in front of the Pasionaria hospital in Murcia. What we do have is an image which enriches the story of Bert Overton and Bob Merriman, thanks must go to Richard for sharing this invaluable image.

 

The Grange Road building

On 21st October 2022, as part of the Council run Discover Middlesbrough Month  Middlesbrough Town Hall hosted my talk on the Teesside International Brigade Memorial; the wooden plaque produced in 1939 which is held in the Town Hall itself.

In Middlesbrough’s Council Chamber I told the remarkable story of the memorial’s production, loss, discovery and rededication. I was able to present my latest research, which fills in some of the gaps in the memorial’s story.

Two years ago I wrote about the Teesside International Brigade Memorial, in the intervening time I have continued to research the men and the story of the memorials loss, discovery and dedication. I have met with relatives of some of the men named on the memorial as well as the relatives of some of those involved in the memorial’s production and dedication. I have even spoken to and met with some of the people who participated in the recovery and dedication of the memorial.

We now have a much clearer picture of the volunteers and the Communist Party (CP) on Teesside. We can see the memorial in it’s context; how the story of the Teesside International Brigade memorial highlighs the story of the Communist Party on Teesside. This memorial was produced by and for the Communist Party on Teesside, it commemorates not only the men who fell but also the role the local party played in the Spanish conflict. The years after the Spanish War on Teesside were pretty turbulent for the Communist Party on Teesside.

Two years ago I wrote:

Harold Bennet, from Kent, was visiting relatives, he was a carpenter and French polisher, he asked to make this memorial especially; as he was aware he was losing his sight, sadly he lost his sight almost immediately after the completion of the memorial.

At the time I could not connect Harold Bennett to Teesside, recently found records now show that in early years of the Second World War George Short spent a few weeks in Kent on a “Communist Party refresher course”, this may explain why Harold Bennet constructed the memorial, it certainly provides a link to Kent which we did not previously have. Once made it was International Brigader Tommy Chilvers who painted the crest and the lettering.

The Communist Party already had an office on Stockton’s High Street and David Goodman says:

“a bookshop in a side turning off the High Street”

This would be the office at 92 Hartington Road which I wrote about in Singing Brigaders.

In Middlesbrough the CP rented offices on Borough Road and the  Young Communist League (YCL) had a meeting place on Marton Road. In 1941 David Marshall enabled the puchase of 147 Grange Road, in Middlesbough, to become the CP office in Middlesbrough; this is now the MIMA carpark.

The purchase of offices highlights the huge growth in CP membership; from about 70 CP members on Teesside in 1934 this grew to over 2,000 by 1941. There were also YCL and Labour League of Youth (LLY) branches in Billingham, Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton; the Middlesbrough branch of the YCL was the second largest outside London.

According to George, Maurice Sutherland, a member of the Middlesbrough YCL, was the articled solicitor for the Labour League of Youth and YCL. Maurice “gave support to YCL meetings” which explains why he organised the correct documentation for the purchase of 147 Grange Road.

George Short said that:

“The Party got the premises for next to nothing as it was a wreak.”

The building certainly needed a lot of work doing to it before it could be used; George Short tells that he and David Marshall put two steel beams under the ground floor to support it.

“Using my knowledge as a pitman we shored the floor up with timbers, there was a basement where we knocked out the two top courses of bricks and put the steel beams across. Talk about fools rush in, the whole building could have collapsed on us.” George Short to Bert Ward Dec.1988

It was in the rebuilt and refurbished Grange Road office that the Teesside International Brigade memorial was placed. Sadly George would not have long to enjoy the fruits of their labours. The  declaration of war by the UK on Nazi Germany in early September 1939 put the Communist Party in a difficult position; the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact meant that the UK was at war with an ally of the Soviet Union.

Harry Pollitt, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) welcomed the British declaration of war on Nazi Germany; in his pamphlet How To Win The War he  called for a “struggle on two fronts” and for the “military defeat of Hitler and the political defeat of Chamberlain”.

This was  contrary to the Moscow controlled  Communist International (Comintern) policy. This was seized upon by Pollitt’s critics in the CPGB. Pollitt was forced to resign and Rajani Palme Dutt succeeded him as General Secretary.

The CPGB under Dutt followed a policy of “revolutionary defeatism”  which stated that the goals of the Communist Party could be accelerated by quickening the defeat of Britain, this caused the CPGB to split into two factions; a faction controlling the Party headed by Dutt and a faction which supported Harry Pollitt. The animosity between the two factions increased when Dutt arranged for Pollitt’s expulsion from the CPGB. The impact of this on Teesside was dramatic.

George Short, who had been the Teesside District organiser since 1931 as a Pollitt loyalist was ousted, and Jimmy Keeham was sent up from London to take on the role of District organiser.

In response George took up work at Smith’s Dock, it was whilst working here that we can see that George continued his support for Pollitt’s policy of supporting the war effort: a dispute at the shipyard over working conditions and hours escalated when the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) called for strike action. George successfully persuaded his fellow workers against strike action, saying “it will benefit the Fascists more than it will benefit you.” The strike didn’t take place and George was appointed Shop Steward, where he successfully negotiated  improvements.

It was at this time that Ron Boddy joined the party.

“I wanted to join the Party, I went to Stockton and I went looking for the Communist Party. Nobody knew anything so I thought there must be some NUWM people here so I went looking for them. And I had great difficulty until somebody gave me a name which I forget, but which George Short would know. I went to his house and asked him where I could find the Communist Party. He was most unpleasant and it wasn’t long before I realised that he and George were daggers drawn but I did find out where George worked. I found George Short in Derby Terrace in Thornaby. So I went along and saw George, told him I was here for ROP and that I was a member of the Communist Party in Cardiff and wanted to carry on up here. I joined the Party in Stockton.” Ron Boddy in interview with Bert Ward 1988.

David Goodman supports this, he recalls that “we got somebody from London but he wasn’t much good.”

Harry Pollitt was reinstated as the General Secretary of the CPGB after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. On his return Pollitt swiftly overturned Dutt’s position of criticising the government,  instead the Party followed Pollitt’s original position and now offered full support to the Churchill government.

George too was reinstated as District Organiser, this must have been a relief for the local activists, it appears however that they weren’t the only ones to be happy about it. As George was carrying out war work he need official permission to leave his employement, but his employers made it very easy for him, as George says:

Sunderland Forge were glad to help me get my release, just to get rid of me.

George also recalls that Jimmy Keeham left the local Party in a lot of debt, creating a need to raise funds:

We ran a campaign to raise money, we asked every member to raise £4 each, this paid off the debts and there was a remaning sum which paid for Grange road.

To show how large the Party had become by 1941 the Internationational Brigader David Goodman became the full time district organiser for Middlesbrough (in 1941) with Jimmy Keeham the full time District Secretary for Teesside. Goodman retained his post when George returned as District Secretary until 1943, when the Party moved him to Stoke where he took the role of full time District Secretary for the South East Midlands. David spent a few months in Stoke before taking the position of District Secretary for Devon and Cornwall, a post he retained until 1965, when he began his university studies as a mature student.

It was George and David who organised public meetings to call for a Second Front, to support the Soviet war effort. At one meeting Willie Gallacher the CPGB Member of Parliament for West Fife spoke. David Goodman recalls that it was at this meeting that his own father joined the CP, in fact David says that over 100 new members joined the Party at this one meeting. It was also about this time that David Goodman and David Marshall were arrested together whilst selling the Daily Worker on the streets of Middlesbrough.

They didn’t only hold demonstrations, in 1940 George Short led a CP deputation to see Stockton’s Member of Parliament, Harold Macmillan, who had recently returned from Finland.  George argued for a Second Front, and it may have had some effect because in May 1940 Harold Macmillan voted against the Government in the Norway Debate, helping to bring down Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister. There is also a story that at the end of the debate Macmillan tried to join in with Colonel Josiah Wedgwood singing “Rule, Britannia” in the House of Commons Chamber, see Alistair Horne’s Macmillan 1894-1956  for further details.

Sadly I didn’t have the time to relate these fascinating stories that are linked to and enrich the history of the Teesside International Brigade memorial during my time in Middlesbrough Town Hall. The problem is that these are just some of the intriging stories that are linked to the memorial, there are many many more.

 

 

 

 

 

Still more on the Stockton branch of the National Unemployed Workers Movement

Two years ago I wrote about an image John Coates’ friend, Tim Brown, was looking at. Tim was thinking that the policeman shown in the image was from the Middlesbrough Police Force; the force both had served in. After some enquiry we discovered that it was the Gateshead constabulary shown; we established that the Stockton contingent of the NUWM were marching across the Tyne Bridge. See –  https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2020/08/14/the-stockton-branch/

I have since seen this image used fairly often, as it seems to be one of the few images in which the lettering on the banner can be seen in it’s entirety.

Two weeks ago I had cause to review this image once again. Peter Shearer shared an image showing – “Unemployed marchers moving through Northumberland Road, Newcastle in 1932.” which he had found on  Mirrorpix. 

Peter shared it to a Facebook page for Classic Photos of Newcastle and The East End and it was subsequently reposted on the North east Labour History Society Facebook page.  When I saw it I contacted Peter, he told me where he’d found it and I downloaded a copy.

Unemployed marchers moving through Northumberland Road, Newcastle in 1932

What first caught my eye was the Sunderland Branch banner, as this seemed to be the one seen in the Tyne Bridge photograph.

On blowing up the image to see the Sunderland Branch banner more clearly I realised that the Middlesbrough Communist Party banner can be seen and that this is also on the Tyne Bridge Photograph, although only ‘Communist Party’ can be made out. It is great that this new photograph allows us to see most of the lettering on the banner. We can also see that the West Hartlepool Unemployed Organisation banner in both photographs, they are taking part and marching with their own banner, this was a grouping I was unaware of up until now.

Clearly this is the same same group in the two pictures, meaning the pictures were taken at the same time but at different locations. They are very close in time as to reach Northumberland Road, the marchers would probably have moved north from the Tyne Bridge up Pilgrim Street, then continued up Northumberland Street, then turned right just before the Haymarket. This short distance confirms our suggestion from two years ago that the photograph of the Stockton contingent does show them on the Tyne Bridge.

I have found that there is also a second image in the Mirrorpix page which shows the same event and in this one the banners can be seen even more clearly, I think this second image shows the group further along from the previous photograph, showing them passing the City Hall.  I’m really pleased that the Middlesbrough banner can be read quite easily.

I think these images show how well organised the march was. In a interview George Short tells us that the North East Group assembled in Newcastle on 4th October 1932 where a rally and speeches occured, and that a further Teesside contingent joined the North East Group at Darlington the next day, on the 5th October 1932.

As well as giving us a clear indication of the make up of the group it has also raised a few more intriging questions: for years I had pointed out that the smartly dressed man marching beside the NUWM men, I proposed that this was an MI5 officer detailed with following the march; we know some did as their reports are available in the National archives

The new photograph showing Northumberland Road has made me reconsider my proposal, for he seems in this picture to be stewarding the marchers, the men seem to accept him, he appears to be part of the contingent.  He is dressed so much differently to the rest of  the marchers that he stands out.

The Tyne Bridge photograph suggested that the Stockton  Contingent headed the Teesside groups; I think this it is now supported by these photographs, it seems that it is the back of the Stockton banner that can be seen going out of shot in the Northumberland Road photograph as the Stockton contingent  are heading this group, and again they are missing from the second of these two new  images as they  have marched out of shot.

I am particularly pleased with the second picture, although it does not show the Stockton contingent it does shows so much more of the banners and the placards.

The placard which starts with ‘Sacrifice’ in much clearer and unobscured, unlike in the Tyne Bridge Photograph, and the West Hartlepool banner is very clear in this second picture.

In all eighteen contingents converged on London’s Hyde Park on 27th October 1932, where the 3,000 marchers were met by a crowd of between 50, 000 or 150, 000 depending upon which source you use. The Metropolitan police commissioner deployed 70, 000 police officers to control the crowd in 1932, the aim was to prevent the petition the men carried reaching Parliament; when the Police confiscated the Parliamentary petition in Hyde Park violence broke out. In scenes reminiscent of Peterloo mounted officers charged the huge crowd which contained women and children, resulting in 75 people being seriously injured. Phyllis Short recalls in interview that she was struck on the head by a mounted policeman and was therefore unable to attend the Mass Rally in Trafalgar Square the next day, but George did speak at Trafalgar Square.

The media blackout on publicity for Communist inspired protests ensured that very was reported, and this has meant that these events are overshadowed by the; in terms of numbers, tiny Jarrow Crusade. I think, however, that the photograph of Trafalgar square speaks for itself.

The NUWM leader Walter Hannington was arrested in Hyde Park, he was refused bail so he spent several months in jail. He tried to prosecute the Home Secretary  Lord Trenchard  the break in by police of  the NUWM’s London offices; the Police broke in and destroyed the contents whilst Hannington was imprisoned. The Prime Minister, Ramsey MacDonald, personally intervened to prevent the prosecution of Lord Trenchard going ahead. This is why we don’t see many photographs of Wal’ Hannington in 1932.

Walter ‘wal’ Hannington (1896 -1966) was a Founding Member Of The Communist Party Of Great Britain And National Organiser Of The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement.

I feel that these photographs give us a richer impression of the 1932 National Hunger March than we had and especially the organisation of the Teesside Communist Party. George Short had returned from the International Lenin School just a few months before the National Hunger March, but these images show the strength of the groups that were campaigning against The Means Test, and that they were well organised, a testimoney to the dedication and organisational ability of the small number of Communist Party activists.

These three images are a fantastic record of the 1932 National Hunger march and the North East contingent. I’m really pleased as I have some really exciting news regarding the Women’s Contingent on the 1932 March, I did write about it in 2020 – https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2020/08/17/more-on-the-stockton-branch/ but now I have some new material which is quite stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foxburg on the Interweb

Skip to toolbar