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.