Defended Democracy: Reading’s International Brigades Memorial Ray Parkes, Keith Jerrome and Mike Cooper Reading international Brigades Memorial Trust, 2015 https://www.facebook.com/readinginternational.brigademonument “ We were all young and enthusiastic… none of us had any experience of war conditions.” Thora Silverthorne, Nurse, 1936-37 20 Acknowledgements Reading International Brigades Memorial Committee would like to thank the Mayor of Reading, Cllr Tony Jones, Reading Borough Council Officers, Unite, UNISON, the National Clarion Cycling Club, the Old Readingensians, the International Brigade Memorial Trust , Michele Spiller for her skill and efforts in creating this booklet and the many other individuals too numerous to mention for their support The International Brigade Memorial Trust keeps alive the memory and spirit of the men and generosity, without which the conservation, relocation and rededication of the and women from Britain, Ireland and elsewhere who volunteered to defend democracy Memorial would not have been possible. and fight fascism in Spain from 1936 to 1939. You can support the IBMT by joining individually or by affiliating your union branch. Further details can be found on the Trust’s website at: www.international-brigades.org.uk Chronology Affiliated trade unions: 1936 Reading tennis players witness start of Civil War in Barcelona; Reg Saxton, Thora Silverthorne and Roy Poole in Spain. ASLEF, CWU, EIS, FBU, GMB, RMT, TSSA, UCATT, Unison, Unite 1937 Frank Hillsley, Evan Ellis, Josh Francis and Bill Ball fighting at Battle of Jarama. Bill Ball killed. Medical volunteers support casualties. Josh Francis and Evan Ellis wounded at Brunete. Julian Bell killed Patrons: at Brunete. Rodney Bickerstaffe Professor Peter Crome 1938 Josh Francis killed in Aragon, Jimmy Moon captured. Reg Saxton Hywel Francis MP treats wounded in a cave. Professor Helen Graham Ken Livingstone 1939 Hostel for adult refugees in Reading in operation. Len McCluskey Christy Moore Jack O’Connor 1986 Meeting in Reading to decide on Memorial. Maxine Peake Baroness Royall of Blaisdon 1990 May: Memorial unveiled. 2000 Publication of book about volunteers. Founding Chair: Professor Paul Preston 2010 Memorial gathering for Thora Silverthorne. Charity number 1094928 2011 Exhibition at Reading Museum On Reading and the Spanish Civil War. 2014 Plan to move Memorial. 2015 May: restored Memorial unveiled in Forbury Gardens. 2 19 Administrators and Humanitarian Aid Sybil Clarke Foreword Sybil Clarke’s involvement in Spain is known only from her MI5 record and a letter from Reg Saxton to Ray Parkes written in 1986.: Mayor of Reading, Councillor Tony Jones “In the Spring of 1939 there were many Spanish refugees arriving in England...but cash was very short. Simultaneously there were many Czech refugees who were well funded. In Reading we put these two together and got Czech funding..enough to house and feed several Spanish refugees. “The late Leonard Peto...found us a house that we could have rent free...south of the London Rd at the Jack of Both sides and Sybil Clarke, a secretary who had worked Valencia for the SMAC, and ran a rest home there for us, became housekeeper.” The Labour Party newspaper, Reading Citizen, carried a piece in its mid-May 1939 issue describing the hostel, which it stated was supported by the newly renamed Spanish Refugee Committee, administered by Leonard Peto’s wife. The hostel is understood to have been in Craven Road. According to MI5, Sybil Maud Clarke sailed for Spain with a medical aid unit on 25th March 1937. References National Archives film KV/5/112 Reg Saxton, personal communication to Ray Parkes, 10.04.1986 Eric Stanford's iconic memorial to those people from the Reading area who served in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War has long been established as a local signature in testament to democratic struggles all over the world. The relocation of Reading Borough Council’s main civic offices in 2014 provided both a challenge and opportunity to find a new site for the memorial. Mrs Percy Coish It is entirely appropriate that the memorial’s new home is to be in the town’s Nothing is known of Mrs Coish except a very short piece in the Reading Mercury, stating that she was from historic Forbury Gardens and I congratulate all those who have contributed a Emmer Green, and that in August she walked into Spain from France with fifty pounds of food supplies for great deal of time and effort in making this move a reality—te saludo! refugees. References Reading Mercury 25 August 1936 Tony Jones May 2015 Rosamund Powell Rosamund Powell – who later married Roy Poole – worked as an administrator for the Spanish Medical Aid Committee in Spain. Her time in Spain remained largely unknown to her family until they were contacted during work on the rededication of the Reading Monument References http://spartacus-educational.com/SPpowellR.htm - last accessed 21.03.2105 18 3 Introduction This adds texture, but so far none of it has added significantly to the overall picture of the relationship “History” is often portrayed as a dusty academic between Reading and the Civil War in Spain. At In 1936, aged 25 and living in Kendrick Road with her discipline. The continued outpouring of work on present, no significant body of new evidence has parents, Thora volunteered to join a Spanish Medical Aid the Spanish Civil war is perhaps a good indicator appeared to expand on what was available from a Committee unit bound for Spain. She served in Spain into that, whilst it must be tackled with rigour and clarity, limited range of primary sources and, chiefly, the 1937, and was active in fund raising on her return. the subject is anything but static. local newspapers. If more is going to be understood, Thora Silverthorne became General Secretary of the then This presents anyone writing on the subject with a the attention must be given to resources such as National Association of Nurses and Secretary of the Socialist dilemma: publish, and within months you may be Trades Union records to help build a picture of the Medical Association, and finally retired as an official of the out of date. We’ve been lucky in that most of what structures behind fund raising and aid co-ordination. Civil Service Association. we wrote in 1999 in We Cannot Park on Both Sides holds water still. However, more information on the UNISON named a room in their regional headquarters in involvement of Reading people in the Spanish Civil Reading after her. War has come to light, and we’ve been able to add people to the record, remove others and add detail Maintaining a keen, lively, interest in politics and the Spanish overall. Civil War, Thora died in 1999. This booklet isn’t an attempt fully to update We Thora Silverthorne Cannot Park on Both Sides, but to set the newly relocated Memorial to men from Reading who died in Spain in a little context. References The Memorial itself has been a victim of history, in Mike Cooper: Thora Silverthorne. Reading International Brigades Memorial Trust 2010 a sense. In 1999 I worried that one of the three Chris Farman, Rose Valery and Liz Woolley: No other way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War. Oxford men recorded on the Memorial was unknown to International Brigades Memorial Trust, 2015 anyone in the contemporary sources we’d looked at. Josh Francis and Bill Ball had good material http://spartacus-educational.com/Wsilverthorne.htm last accessed March 2015 from the time to substantiate their role, but George Middleton...? As the notes here show, Middleton http://www.abertilleryanddistrictmuseum.org.uk/News_03_08.html last accessed March 2015 probably never existed. http://www.grahamstevenson.me.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=530:thora- Balancing this, we’ve discovered more about the silverthorne&catid=19:s&Itemid=120 last accessed March 2015 people who went to Spain, and details of others have emerged. In the UK, Paul Preston (who taught at Reading University) continues to develop the use of Spanish records to give a balanced and authoritative view of the War, its context within Spain and its aftermath. Reading’s memorial to Volunteers killed fighting in the Spanish Civil war The opening of MI5 records on Spain at the National Archives has added detail to the picture of There is still no general survey of politics in the Reading volunteers, as well as individual colour Reading in the 1930s, beyond that in Alan to the record. Work by Richard Baxell and Jim Alexander’s Borough Government and Politics: Carmody on these records, foreign office material Reading 1835 to 1985 (Allen and Unwin 1985), and on records held in Moscow has also something that would be necessary if the town’s contributed to an increased knowledge of how the reactions to the Civil War are to be understood in international contribution to the Spanish any context. Government’s war effort was organised, and helped confirm and round out the pictures of individuals. It is important to note that the dozen or so people with Reading links who actually served in Spain However, this increased knowledge has not represent only one way in which the town’s substantially affected the state of understanding on inhabitants became involved in the Spanish Civil the relationship between Reading and the Spanish War. As we noted in 1999, most people in Reading Civil War. We know about more people who spent did not participate actively in anything to do with time in Spain, and we know more about the people the war in Spain. Beginning with the abdication featured in our original research. Further work is crisis of 1936 and culminating in the Munich crisis – needed to look at their lives after Spain, and to look with air raid shelter trenches dug in some of for connections between them.