On Saturday 14^th February 2026, in Stockton, in collaboration with our colleagues in the Madrid-based AABI Friends of the International Brigades, Alan Warren and Porta de la Historia, the Kfsr EV Deutschland; the German Friends of the International Brigade and with the support of Carl and his staff at The Olive Branch | Stockton-on-Tees , we marked the anniversary of the Battle of Jarama; the first action of the British Battalion of the XV International Brigade.

The commemoration was held outside The Olive Branch,in the Wasps Nest Yard, at our magnificent Stockton International Brigade Memorial, which hangs on the recently opened The Songbird (previously named The Wasps Nest). Unlike last year when the commemoration was held in Middlesbrough we had some shelter from the wind, it was however equally as cold.

Of the thirty-two Teesside born volunteers who served in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War thirteen fought at Jarama in 1937. On 12^th February 1937 the British Battalion of the XV International Brigade faced its first battle. By the evening of the first day, the 600-strong Battalion had been reduced to 250 men. In the afternoon of 13^th February, Bert Overton of Stockton took command of the British Battalion and led them until reinforcements arrived on the morning of the 14^th February.

Four Teesside volunteers lost their lives at Jarama; George Bright and David Halloran were killed in action, whilst Thomas Carter and John Unthank died later as a result of wounds sustained in battle. All four are named on the Teesside International Brigade memorial, now in Middlesbrough Town Hall, we remembered:

George Bright joined the Communist Party on its foundation in 1921; he was a leading activist in the National Unemployed workers movement (NUWM); Leading the Stockton contingent in the 1932 and 1934 Hunger Marches. George demonstrated against the British Union of Fascists in Stockton in 1933 and Hartlepool in 1934 and later took part in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. He arrived in Spain in December 1936 and as a senior Party organiser he was assigned to the political staff. George died on 12^th February 1937 after joining his comrades on the front line.

Thomas Carter was the Communist Party district organiser for Hartlepool, he chaired the Party district committee and, like George Bright, he was very active prior to Spain; he led the Hartlepool NUWM and with his great friend Ron Dennison he demonstrated against the British Union of Fascists when they visited Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton. Thomas Carter died of the wounds he sustained on during the Battle of Jarama on 27^th February 1937.

David Holloran was a Communist Party member, and like the others he demonstrated against the British Union of Fascists when they visited his home town of Middlesbrough, as well as Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton. David was enlisted into the British Battalion on 17^th February 1937, tragically he was killed just ten days later on 27^th February. In February 2024 a message from Denise, Helene and Maureen; the granddaughters of David Holloran, was laid at the new Jarama battlefield memorial.

John Unthank arrived in Spain on 7^th January, just three weeks after his younger brother Alex, both had been in the Young Communist League and were now Communist Party members. Both had already opposed Fascism at home, demonstrating against the BUF in Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton. Both Unthank brothers were seriously wounded at the Battle of Jarama, Alex recovered and was repatriated whilst John died of the wounds he sustained at Jarama in April 1937.

George Brown reports on the memorial service held by the members of the British Battalion in April 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 29 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 from British Battalion commissar to that of the 15th International Brigade.

They were our friends. 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 minute silence was held.

In October 2025, at our volunteers for Liberty events in Billingham, Newcastle and Sunderland, for the first time we remembered all the North East volunteers who lost their lives serving in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil – Volunteers for Liberty goes from strength to strength | Morning Star

In February 2026 at our Jarama commemoration we remembered all the volunteers from our region who fell at Jarama:

George Bright        Thornaby 1895               12^th February 1937

Thomas Carter      Sunderland 1904           27^th February 1937

Thomas Dolan       Sunderland 1912           27^th February 1937

David Holloran      Glasgow 1897                 27^th February 1937

Wilf Jobling             Chopwell 1909               27^th February 1937

Cliff Lawther          Chopwell 1912               12^th February 1937

John Palzeard        South Shields 1916      12^th February 1937

Harry Reynolds    Gateshead 1899             12^th February 1937

Harry Smith            Newcastle 1905             12^th February 1937

John Unthank        Middlesbrough 1911  16^th April 1937

Edgar Wilkinson  Gateshead 1915             12^th February 1937

Sean and Lorrain McCartney are constants at our commemorative events, Lorrain has handstitched bunting in Spanish republican colours which was a wonderful addition to the memorial; I’m honoured that they were able to attend.

The International Brigade was organised by the Communist International (Comintern), I’m honoured that the Communist Party of Britain supports my events, thus it was a pleasure to have their Teesside district organiser, Doc Ritchie speak at the commemoration:

Whether Franco in Spain

Whether Mosley or Farage

Whether ISIS and their Turkish enablers who the brave Kurdish women and men of the YPJ/YPG are fighting against in Northern Syria

Oppression comes in many different guises, but it can be beaten.

Effective resistance to the far right is possible and can be successful in our communities, workplaces, trade unions, classrooms or down the pub, when we organise through solidarity, which is why we commemorate the volunteers who fought in the International Brigades, many of whom, like me, joined the Communist Party because we reject fascism and hopelessness and believe that things can change for the better for the working class.

But whilst many of those volunteers came back, many others paid a terrible price for defending the things we still believe in like solidarity, the fight against tyranny in all its guises, and the hope for a better future.

Hopelessness is too easy and giving up is worse but every time we make a stand, when we counter violent nationalists, racists and fascists on the streets or in our communities, we continue the legacy of the International Brigades.

I’ve been around a while and faced the National Front, BNP, the EDL and its deviant offshoots, at street level, often violently, and they are all the same, they use the same tactics and the same rhetoric, blaming poor non-white people for problems created by very rich white people.

There is always some loudmouth like Robinson and Farage, who are funded by dodgy organisations who blame weak and marginalised people for problems they haven’t caused so a bunch of thugs can attack them, burn their houses, attack hotels and hostels or their places of worship; who vent their anger whilst utterly failing to understand that their lives have been damaged by years of Tory austerity policies and not by desperate people fleeing from war zones.

The Tory government deliberately underfunded working-class communities; the running down of public services that supported people with mental health and substance abuse issues, or women and kids fleeing domestic violence; benefit cuts that pushed people further into poverty so many of us, like me, who are unemployed, face the rising cost of living in despair.

The far-right blame migrants for their social and economic problems but ignore millionaire tax dodgers or scrounging landlords who take millions of housing benefits each year off the government by putting working class people in lousy accommodation.

Now, we are faced with a Labour government that has ignored working class communities affected by rising unemployment, inflation, homelessness and the fact that 25% of children live in poverty in the 6^th largest economy in the world.

It is clear that Reform and their enablers in the BBC, the cowardly mainstream media and feeble right-wing apologists in the press, are gunning for a Farage victory.

Reform attracts disillusioned people who were ignored by Tory governments even though Reform is full of Tory rejects, and do you really think they’ve changed their minds about the underfunding the working class?

But the political spectrum has changed with Your Party and the Greens attracting thousands of voters, especially younger voters, in a very short time, and although as a communist I don’t advocate for either, upcoming elections are going to be very interesting. 

Let me just say this:

Migrants don’t sponge off the NHS, many of them run it

Migrants aren’t the reason I’m unemployed

Migrants aren’t the reason I can’t afford to pay me gas and electric

Migrants aren’t the reason me mam has to wait 3 months to get a hospital appointment for a very basic procedure

Migrants aren’t allowing massive tax evasion by the millionaires, billionaires and international businesses

There is someone to blame here, but it ain’t migrants.

We are facing the same things the International Brigaders faced 90 years ago: poverty, unemployment, political apathy, violent nationalism and fascism, so we need to keep alive the spirit of the communists, socialists and anarchists who went to fight Franco in Spain and remember, they were also migrants.

Destruir el fascismo!

Todos los antifascistas a las calles!

Doc Ritchie on behalf of the Communist Party of Britain

Messages from relatives, friends and comrades are especially important, reminding us that the volunteers live on in our collective memory, sadly Denise, Helene and Maureen, the granddaughters of David Holloran were unable to join us this year. Last year they were interviewed by ITV at the event. Maureen arrived in Barbados on the day of the commemoration, it seemed a bit too far to travel back in time.

It is wonderful that my grandfather is still remembered. Sorry I couldn’t join you on this occasion.

Maureen Miller, Granddaughter of David Halloran

At a time when politics once again seems so dark, I get a real sense of hope from the memory of those who fought for Spain. Their struggle to create a better world must have seemed lost at times. But they did not falter and they left us with the long term understanding that fascism can be defeated and that a better future is possible. I guess it’s up to us now”.

Rosie Serdiville, Historian 

Sorry I can’t be there today, but rest assured I have cleared my diary for next year’s 90th Anniversary. Jarama was, of course, one of the most titanic and bloodiest battles of the whole Spanish Civil War. It was also the one where, so early on in the conflict, the British Battalion of the International Brigade cut its teeth and earned its fearsome reputation. Not for nothing was part of the battleground nicknamed ‘Suicide Hill’ by the men who fought there.

Several men from my hometown of Sunderland saw action at Jarama, these were:

Frank Graham, the London School of Economics student and later chronicler of much of the British Battalion’s history.

Edgar Wilkinson, a politically astute 22-year-old bus conductor.

Tommy Dolan, an unemployed labourer who had to sell his precious bicycle to pay for the fare to Spain.

William Parlett, the only one who had any prior military experience.

Bob Qualie, a British weightlifting champion whose remarkable physique helped him survive being twice wounded in Spain, once at Jarama.

John Glendenning, who occasionally went by the name of Alexander Cessford who was also wounded at Jarama.

Edgar Wilkinson was killed on the first day of battle at Jarama after being cut off and surrounded, his body was never found.

Tommy Dolan was killed three weeks later fighting alongside Frank Graham.

Frank Graham later said of Tommy, “During all these days of continuous fighting he had borne himself with a stoicism that was remarkable did you not realise that it arose from the deep convictions which had brought him so far from home in order to fight in the army of democracy.”

 Today, unfortunately, the far right is rearing its ugly head yet again and while some of it is again far from home, such as the actions of ICE in America and its masked men checking papers and shooting innocent civilians, we have to be aware of its growth on our very own doorstep. What is happening in Minnesota today, could easily happen in Middlesbrough tomorrow when seeds of division and hatred of others are allowed to be sown.

Thank you for listening and Solidarity always my comrades.

Jamie Tucknutt, Historian

I think this is honourable that you’re doing this, thank you so much for keeping his memory alive and the things they all did, they were so brave and I’m so proud of my father.

Lily Farrier, Daughter of Sam Langley.

As a family we are very proud of Myles. Our Mam, his littlest sister was just 15 when he died and she spoke of him often.
She’d been confused as to why her other brothers who died in France and Italy fighting in WW2 were remembered differently. Myles wasn’t allowed a Catholic funeral service at St Mary’s, Stockton but her other brothers had them. That confusion didn’t remain though and in her later years she understood why Myles died in Spain and even went there to remember him.
Mam would have loved to see these commemorations, how his story has emerged and that his sacrifice is continually remembered. Thanks to all of you for commemorating these brave volunteers today it means so much to their family members.

Phil Saint, nephew of Myles Harding

We are proud that our great uncle stood up against the fight against fascism and so sorry that it resulted in the deaths of so many brave and noble men who stood up for what they believed in. They are an inspiration to others who follow in the seeming less endless struggle.

I hope the commemoration goes well.

Natalie & Cathy (great niece and niece of William Carson) 

Remembering all of the International Brigade Volunteers who died fighting to stop the rise of fascism and to defend democracy. 

Always in our thoughts are North East Volunteers, brothers William and Edward Tattam.  

We remember them and their legacy with pride.

Kim Tattam, son of Bill Tattam, and family.

Clifford Lawther

A much loved son and brother, taken from us far too soon.

Always in their thoughts.

Mary Plane and Ian Lawther, on behalf of the Lawther family

As our song says Jarama was where “many of our brave comrades fell”. Today we remember these comrades and the part they and others played fighting Fascism in Spain: the precursor to the Second World War. 

For my grandparents George and Phyllis Short the death of Wilf Jobling was a bitter blow. They grew up together in the same pit village, led the 1926 General Strike, the 5 months after that the miners held out before being forced back to work, and were 2 of the 30,000 miners in County Durham who didn’t get their jobs back.

Today we have in the UK, Reform and Farage using the failures of our government to blame those fleeing wars and repression for the failures of our economy to meet the needs of the many whilst the few massively increase their wealth. The World continues to be plunged into war over access to raw materials and attempts to divide people along religious and ethnic lines whilst multinational companies exploiting and destroying our world for short term gain. 

Peggy Seager sings that working people have fought for a better world and every generation has to renew and continue this fight. When a blackbird sings in the dead of night they are not wrong just early. Today we remember these blackbirds who fought and died in Spain still showing us La Lucha Continua!

Alan and Judy Short 

On this anniversary to mark the first engagement of the British Battalion at the Battle of Jarama in Spain I pause to think of all of the women and men who left their homes and their lives for a shared ideal. To stop the spread of fascism across Europe. Men like George Bright, Thomas Carter, David Holloran and Wilf Jobling who went to Spain to stop the rising tide of hatred and intolerance. Not because they were told to go, but because they knew it was the right thing to do. 

History does not remember these women and men the way it should so these acts of remembrance serve to remind us all that often it is necessary to fight for the freedoms we hold so dear, particularly now with the rise of the far right in Britain and across the world. 

I will remember them and forever hold them in awe at the sacrifices these people made to try to keep all of us safe.

Salud

Dave Jones, Grandson of Jack Jones

Poetry has always held a special place in our events, the title of my book on the Stockton Brigaders is taken from a poem by David Marshall, the Stockton Memorial has a line from Mike Wild’s poem and then we have Bob Beagries anthology Romanceros dedicated to the Teesside volunteers.

Mike Wild, Tony Fox, Michael Crowley speaking at the Manchester IBMT AGM in 2022

 The author and historian Michael Crowley sent his best wishes and a specially written poem; which will now appear in his new book: Remember Me to My Comrades: Letters of the International Brigade – Michael Crowley | Barnthorn Publishing

The Red Earth

Here is a handful of the red earth

from Aragon, where he fell.

We folded the ground over him

after the air raid,

a cloak he still wears.

I can tell you

I met him at Albacete

jumping off a lorry, singing,

asking for a rifle.

He ran messages up the line

weaving down the trench

greeting and joking in Yiddish

a smile as wide as the Ebro.

He reminded me when I had forgotten

why I came.

You must be asking what your loss is for?

Many of us in the world feel like this now.

Here is a letter he didn’t get to send.

Michael Crowley

Harry Gallagher was unable to make it, he sent his best wishes and this specially written poem

For All Of The Fallen

To all you lost missing lads

of the International Brigade

missing home

missing food

missing loves

missing limbs

to you embattled lions

of the British Battalion

you time served braves

who fell in Jarama

amid the blood and the drama

you prophets, you hearts

you sons of this land

you advance guard

of hard-hitting lessons

at fascism’s jagged hand

we salute your lives

we pray you send

us strength now for the fight

that will never, ever end.

​​​​​​​​​Harry Gallagher

Our focus is was on the four Teesside volunteers who died at Jarama, last year we held the Jarama commemoration in Middlesbrough and were joined by Maureen, Denise, and Helene, who spoke about their grandfather David Holloran. This year as I have only recently got in touch with the relatives of George Bright it was George who was especially honoured this year.

On 12th April 1895 George, a second son, was born to Samuel and Mary Bright of 4 Lumsden Street, Thornaby, which was just off New Street.  Samuel is shown on the Baptism records as an Iron worker, presumably at the nearby South Stockton Iron Works.

George became a skilled carpenter, a member of The Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers (ASW), he was also an active and founding member of the Communist Party, described by Fred Copeman in Reason in Revolt, as ‘an uncompromising fighter for Trade Unionism’.

George was also an organiser in the National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM), he took part in the 1932 National Hunger March; we even have a picture of him with the Stockton contingent on the lions at Trafalgar Square. George also took part in the Battle of Stockton Cross  in March 1933 and the Battle of Stockton six months later (Sept 1933). George, like Johnny Longstaff stayed in London after taking part in the 1934 National Hunger March, becoming, in 1935, the secretary of the Clerkenwell Branch of the ASW (in London) and a member of the St Pancras branch of the Communist Party, this explains why he took part in the Battle of Cable Street on 4th October 1936.

George travelled to Spain with one of the very earliest organised groups, arriving in Albecete with fellow Stockton born volunteer Bert Overton on 31st December 1936. As an experienced activist his was a political posting, he had been sent by Harry Pollitt as a non-combatant, he was therefore allocated to the British Battalion political staff.

On the first day of the Battle of Jarama, having initially remaining at the rear, he volunteered to take the desperately needed correct ammunition to Bert Overton who was holding the ridge line with the remains of two companies, it was whilst doing so that he was recognised by Fred Copeman:

Just then I came across George Bright. George was a carpenter, over sixty years old. He had come to Spain to do carpentry, being too old to fight. George had been well known to me during the unemployed struggles in London. I asked him what the hell he was doing here, and just as he opened his mouth to answer, there was a very quiet plop and a small red hole appeared in his forehead. He died instantly. His Union card fluttered out as he fell – A.S.W. I thought what an awful thing it was that he, at his age should be here, and yet I am certain he would not have wished for any other end. Reason in Revolt – Fred Copeman

George Bright lost his life on the first day of the Battle of Jarama, on 12th February 1937, at the age of just  forty two. Fred Copeman still gets his age wrong when he  pays tribute to George in the Daily Worker, printed on 15th September 1937.

Bob Beagrie also could not be with us, as he was reading from his latest publication The Hand of Glory in Whitby, he sent his best wishes and asked that I read A Particular Shade of Red from his anthology Romanceros – Romanceros – Bob Beagrie — Drunk Muse Press

A Particular Shade of Red

(After the testimony of Fred Copeman – Reason in Revolt)

“Our children are not taught their history

And you forget them at your peril

For though you fight as well as they

You’ll be betrayed as we were.”

I Have Lived in a Time of Heroes – David Marshall

Not the red of the setting sun licking the tip of the hilltop over the Ebro,

nor the dribble of red vino down the side of a glass raised in a toast to Liberty in a café in Albacete,

it wasn’t the red cross of St George who on this occasion had shrunk away from the Dragon,

not the glowing pool of an illuminated pavement in the Parisian Red-Light District where he’d had a medical examination and been interviewed to check his political orientation,

nor was it the shade of the ‘Red Express’ that shunted him and his comrades south through France,

nor the red field of the communist flag or the emblem of the three pointed star,

it was not the flash of a sol-splashed muleta passing over the horns of a wounded bull,

it wasn’t the glorious crimson of wild roses at the edge of Thornaby Wood,

nor that of paper poppies in lapels on Armistice Day or the real ones growing between crosses on Flanders Fields;

no this particular red followed a quiet pop as a small hole appeared in George Bright’s forehead in the moment before his body dropped.

Bob Beagrie

I had the honour to finish with this message from Jane and Rob Peutrell

George Bright, the Teesside Volunteer, is our grandmother’s step-brother; her father George McLean and George’s mother, Mary were friends who married when both were bereaved early. Our mother remembers, as a child, visiting George’s sister in Stockton, where her mother was born.

Today, we look back at the heroism of the volunteers of many nations who mobilised to fight fascism in Spain. 

We remember that for so many of that generation, rising fascism demanded an urgent international struggle. They knew first hand where the politics of hate and scapegoating of easy targets can lead us. There is a slippery slope. 

We recall Martin Niemöller confessional words that start ‘First they came …’ and remember how that ended: His words were a demand for solidarity and for acting on the threat we share in common.

Fascism does not start only with jack boots and uniforms. 

It starts by peeling away our capacity for solidarity and for recognising what we share despite our differences in colour, religion, sexuality, countries of origin, or how we got here. 

Today’s scapegoats are likely to be asylum seekers and members of Muslim communities, or those protesting the genocide in Gaza. 

Against the background of the systemic neglect of our communities – the loss of whole industries and skilled, secure work – the gangsters and grifters, the racists and reactionaries are out in force again, as they were in the 30s.

Whether Raising the Colours or wearing suits in Reform, the same bleak forces are slouching around. A party led by millionaires claiming to speak for working class voters. 

Cos-play patriots with no programme – and no interest in finding answers to the real problems we all face together – economic insecurity, broken public services, staggering inequalities of wealth and power.

Today, we remember the volunteers, and the struggle and sacrifice of those who – like George and his comrades – united to fight fascism in Spain. Why did they go? From the Stockton memorial:

‘They went because their open eyes could see no other way’.

Solidarity. La lucha continua!

There is a plaque for the International Brigade in the Town Hall, nobody here knows anything about it, do you?

Lockdown brought a halt to the Stockton Memorial campaign and hampered my research, but on 17^th 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 21^st 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 9^th 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.

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 23^rd 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 26^th 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.