Defended Democracy: Reading’s 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 . 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 .

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. Reading's parks – Spain was only one issue Thora Silverthorne speaking at the unveiling of the Reading Memorial

4 17 amongst many. However, people in the town did or who were previously unknown. Where no Dr Reginald Saxton participate: references are given, information may be found Reg Saxton lived a long and active life, and not one filled with years without purpose. He was distributing in We Cannot Park on Both Sides. anti-war leaflets with his partner, Rosaleen, weeks before his death at 92. Coming from a privileged  By volunteering to serve in Spain background, Reg Saxton’s conscience was outraged by the mass unemployment, poverty and suffering he  By working in relief or support services in Mike Cooper observed in 1930s Britain. This led to his becoming a communist and joining the Communist Party. Reading May 2015  By donating to the range of charitable fundraising Saxton graduated from Cambridge University with a medical degree and trained at the famous St efforts run locally. Bartholomew’s Hospital, qualifying in 1935. The total number involved – even the more reachable The attempted coup in Spain in July 1936 affected Reg Saxton deeply. He observed with increasing concern number of “activists” - is hard to gauge. A lack of the growth of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, the Nazi rise to power in Germany and the violent anti-Semitic records and a lack of definition mean that we will demonstrations of our home-grown fascists under Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts. probably never be able to put a figure to the number of people who helped support the Republican In September 1936 Saxton volunteered for duty with a medical aid unit and left for Spain. In an interview with Government or raise money for food aid or Basque a local Reading newspaper he said “we are going to help the wounded of both sides in this conflict but we refugee children. Given the lack of direct participation cannot, of course, park on both sides, so we will go on the side of the government, with whom we have by the Corporation, it seems unlikely that much new sympathy as the democratically elected government of Spain”. material will appear.

During his service in Spain, Saxton distinguished More work is needed on the lives of Spanish refugees, himself with his techniques in blood transfusion and there may be useful work to be done looking at the close to the battle line, undoubtedly saving the participation of people from other communities in lives of hundreds of republican and nationalist Reading – for example, most members of the Interna- soldiers. His work on blood transfusion in battle tional Brigades were not British, so are there people conditions was published by The Lancet and living in Reading today with relatives who served in the influenced the establishment of wartime British “Dimitrovs” (a Battalion drawn mainly from volunteers blood banks. from Bulgaria and states in Eastern Europe and the Balkans). More to the point, given that most of the peo- After returning from Spain after almost two years ple directly affected by the Spanish Civil War were with the International Brigades, Saxton became Spanish, isn’t looking only for “Internationals” simply Assistant Medical Officer for Health (Civil Defence) missing out a whole community, the most vital one? for Brighton (1939-1941). During World War II he served as a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corp The short biographies here give most space to blood transfusion service in Burma and was individuals for whom we have information additional to The Reading memorial commemorates the struggle mentioned in dispatches for his bravery. that published in We Cannot Park on Both Sides in support of the democratic government of Spain

After the was he worked as a GP in South Wales with another former International Brigader, Dr Alex- References ander Tudor-Hart. He remained politically active for Additional information about volunteers in Spain, and about the Reading volunteers is given in the following, the rest of his life, supporting CND and Medics amongst many publications and websites: Against the Bomb. Dr Reg Saxton died, aged 92, on 27 March 2004. Richard Baxell, British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades, 1936-1939. Routledge/Cañada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain, 2004 References Richard Baxell, Unlikely warriors : The Extraordinary Story Of The Britons Who Fought In The Spanish Civil Linda Palfreeman: Salud: British volunteers in the War. Aurum Press, 2014 Republican Medical Service. Sussex Academic Angela Jackson, British Women and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. Routledge, 2002. Press, 2012 Linda Palfreeman, Salud: British volunteers in the Republican Medical Service. Sussex Academic Press, http://spartacus-educational.com/SPsaxtonR.htm 2012 last accessed March 2015. Dr Reg Saxton with the British Battalion banner Richard Baxell, Angela Jackson, and Jim Jump (Eds.), Antifascistas: British & Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Lawrence & Wishart, 2010 Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge (Revised edition). Harper Thora Silverthorne International 2006. Thora Silverthorne was a nurse, a political activist and an ardent trades unionist who made an important Mike Cooper and Ray Parkes, We Cannot Park on Both Sides: Reading Volunteers in the Spanish Civil contribution to the founding of the National Health Service. Of all her achievements, she once said that the War 1936-1938. RIBMC, 2000 “..finest and best and most important decision” she ever made was to serve in Spain.

Born in Abertillery, Wales, in 1910, her father was an active trades unionist and a founding member of the Websites local Communist Party. By the age of 16 Thora was a member of the Young Communist League (YCL). Her http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/education last accessed 21/03/2015 association with Reading began after her mother’s death when she worked as a nanny for Dr Somerville http://www.basquechildren.org/ - last accessed 21/03/2015 Hastings, Reading’s first labour MP. At his prompting she trained as a Nurse at the John Radcliffe in Oxford, http://www.richardbaxell.info/tag/international-brigades/page/2/ last accessed 21/03/2015 although at one time she had seemed destined for a career in union work. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/777.htm Last accessed 21/02/2015 16 5 References Reading’s Monument to its Heroes of the Spanish Civil War Chris Farman et al: No other Way Oxford IBMT Committee, 2014 Linda Palfreeman: Salud: British volunteers in the Republican Medical Service. Sussex Academic Press, 2012. Jim Carmody: Personal Communication to Mike Cooper, 23.05.2011. “The Spanish people will rise again as they have always risen before against tyranny.

“The dead do not need to rise. They are a part of the earth now and the earth can never be Dr Martin Herford conquered. For the earth endureth forever. It will outlive all systems of tyranny. Dr Herford was part of the Quaker Medical Mission and acted as a substitute for Reg Saxton when the latter was on leave from Spain. His actual connection with Reading is not clear at the time of writing, but he and his “Those who have entered it honourably, and no men ever entered earth more honourably than those family were apparently well know to Reg Saxton. who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality.” Herford specialised in work with children. During World War II he became the most decorated British doctor of the conflict. Ernest Hemingway

References Matthew Hall, Doctor at War. Images Ltd, 1995 Across the British Isles - in England, Scotland, of commemorating the 50th anniversary of the http://www.bmj.com/content/suppl/2002/09/16/325.7364.601.a.DC1 last accessed 21.03.2015 Wales and Ireland - there are now over 126 outbreak of the Spanish civil War as far back as memorials to the men and women who took the 1984. There is much more to the story leading up to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1124121/ last accessed 21.03.2015 momentous decision between 1936 and 1939 to that highly successful public gathering in 1986, but leave their homes, families and sweethearts to that is for another day. make their way to Spain. Often experiencing the Roy Poole most dangerous of conditions – including climbing Three surviving Reading volunteers - Nurse Thora Roy Poole ferried ambulances to Spain, but also the Pyrenees in the middle of the night, risking Craig (nee Silverthorne), Doctor Reg Saxton and drove for the same medical unit Reg Saxton, armed French border guards and savage dogs – combatant jimmy Moon – were all in attendance at Julian Bell, John Boulting and Thora Silverthorne they went to help the Spanish people defend their the Civic Centre’s 50th anniversary gathering in July were part of. At home, he was prominent in fund freedom in the fight against aggressive and 1986. Just three years later all three were back in raising for Spain. dictatorial fascism. Reading as guests of honour at the memorable

unveiling of the monument. The index entry from MI5 records for Poole in the In 1996 there were just 55 memorials in the British National Archives provides a vivid impression of Isles and Ireland, but today that number has more A decision was taken by acclamation at the meeting his multiple trips ferrying ambulances for the than doubled. This fact serves as a glowing tribute to establish a permanent memorial to honour the Spanish Medical Aid Committee: to the growing understanding of the importance of three men from Reading who made the ultimate this tumultuous period. Moreover, there are plans sacrifice; the names Archibald (Josh) Francis, 7.1.37 Reported to have been throughout Britain and the Republic of Ireland to William (Bill) Ball and George Middleton appear in with Spanish Medical Aid Unit establish more of these monuments to the brave the International Brigade Roll of Honour. To this end and to be returning to Spain in volunteers of the International Brigade. the original members of the Labour History Group, three weeks along with the sculptor Eric Stanford, adopted the title 25.3.37 Left for Spain 27.7.37 The memorials take a number of forms in glass, of the Reading International Brigade Memorial Left 10.8.37 Returned wood, metal and stone. They range from a simple Committee (RIBMC). 29.9.37 Sailed for Spain 24.10.37 park bench - such as the one in Halifax Sailed 9.2.38 Returned remembering the writer Ralph Fox, who was killed 27.10.38 Sailed for Spain in action at Cordoba in December 1936 – to the 15.12.38 Left for Spain imposing obelisk in Rotherham’s Peace Garden, and the towering statue on Clydeside depicting The MI5 wording is confusing in places, but it Dolores Ibarruri, Spain’s legendary anti-fascist seems to describe at least five trips over a period leader known the world over as ‘La Pasionaria’. of 20 months, each lasting only a short time. Inscribed on this iconic statue are La Pasionaria’s defiant words to the Spanish people: “It is better to References die on your feet than to live on your knees!” National Archives File KV/5/112

http://spartacus-educational.com/SPpooleR.htm - Reading’s monument to its International Brigade last accessed 21.03.2015 heroes is the legacy of a packed and enthusiastic gathering at the Civic Centre in July 1986. That meeting had its roots in a discussion involving Labour History Group members led by trade union official Keith Jerrome, teacher Ray Collins, A selection of Eric Stanford’s working drawings for the Memorial Co-operative official Mark Craig, higher education Figure on the Reading memorial representing the teacher Maureen Cotter and trade union activist dead Volunteers and all those who died in Spain Ray Parkes. Keith Jerrome had raised the question 6 15 “George Middleton” and “ John Beale” George Middleton is the third man named on Reading’s International Brigades Memorial. At the time the memorial was created it was believed that Middleton was from Reading and had been killed fighting with a

Republican militia unit in Madrid in 1936. However, further research has shown that in all probability

Middleton was either a fictional person created by James Albrighton, who served in Spain in 1937, or a real person transposed into the context of the Spanish Civil War by Albrighton.

The source used to include George Middleton on the Reading memorial was Bill Alexander's history of the British Battalion. This includes what, at the time of publication in 1982, was believed to be a definitive list of British men killed in Spain. The list was based on a ”Roll of Honour” compiled shortly after the Civil War, with some additional material.

Amongst this material was information from James Albrighton about George Middleton. This was accepted in good faith by the author, and used as such when the monument was created. When We Cannot Park on Both Sides was written no information from Reading could be found on Middleton but, noting this, it was felt that if he had served in a militia and had not had Labour of Communist connections in Reading, he might well have been unknown to activists at the time .

Subsequent research by Richard Baxell and Jim Carmody initially pointed to a second Reading man killed in Madrid – “John Beales” – mentioned in a diary left by Albrighton. Within a short time, however, it became evident that Albrighton’s diary was not what it seemed, and that the events and people it mentions were not witnessed by the diarist. Put simply, the only contemporary source for the existence of George Middleton, and his supposed death in 1936, was a diary written by a man who claimed to have participated in the events but who, at the time, was not actually in Spain. James Albrighton seems to have created his diary at some point during or after his subsequent service in Spain, from 1937 to 1938. In December 1936, when his diary has him in Madrid, he was actually in the Royal Navy.

References Mike Cooper, Frank Hillsley, George Middleton and John Beale: the “missing” Reading volunteers in Spain 1936-37. Unpublished file note, 2000. Eric Stanford's early sketches for the memorial

The task the committee had set itself turned out to particular for children. Although collectors of Medical Services be more complicated than it had anticipated and non-perishable foods told of having doors slammed took considerably longer to achieve than expected. in their faces in the more affluent parts of Reading, Julian Bell Committee Chairman and Correspondence they also praised the generosity of people from the Poet, and nephew of Virginia Woolf, Julian Bell went to school in Reading at Leighton Park, and served in Secretary Ray Parkes was somewhat sanguine working class areas, and of Republican Spain Spain as an ambulance driver as part of the same unit as Roy Poole and John Boulting. He was mortally in his estimation of the 12 – 18 months for this supporter William McIllroy, shop owner and wounded when his ambulance came under air attack during the in July1937. Dr Reg Saxton exciting project to reach completion: in fact, it took one-time Liberal Mayor of Reading. treated him before his death. four years of hard and continuing campaigning, with appeals to national trade unions (as always, Fund raising events, such as tea dances, were References generous in their giving), local trade union councils organised by Left Book Club members such as Eric http://spartacus-educational.com/SPbellJ.htm and branches, the Labour Party and the Communist Parrot, manager of the famous Reading shoe shop, Stansky, Peter and Field: Charles Julian Bell: from Bloomsbury to the Spanish Civil War. Stanford University Party, Co-operative movements and countless Milwards. Reading Trades Council bought a Press, 2012. individuals from as far away as Australia, Spain motorbike and sidecar and had it converted into an (including International Brigade members who ambulance. Reading citizen Roy Poole drove John Boulting served with Reading’s Bill Ball and Josh Francis), ambulances to Spain from England with John Best know as a film maker, John Boulting went to Reading School with Bill Ball and Josh Francis. In 1936-37 Italy, Ireland and Morocco. There were also Boulting, a former reading schoolboy who later in he served with the same medical unit as Thora Silverthorne, Reg Saxton, Julian Bell and Roy Poole. donations from other International Brigade veterans, life, along with his brother Roy, became a famous most of whom were themselves pensioners with little film-maker at Ealing Studios. References income, giving with a generosity they could ill afford http://spartacus-educational.com/SPboulting.htm - last accessed 21/03/2015 in remembrance of their fallen comrades. I myself Eventually, after much hard, consistent work, Linda Palfreeman: Salud: British volunteers in the Republican Medical Service. Sussex Academic Press, have been deeply moved and privileged in reading enough funds were raised to pay for the materials 2012. the many letters and donations received from these for the Memorial. We now had to locate a prominent remarkable people. They have left their mark on me. site and, of equal importance, decide on the form Anthony Carrit the memorial would take. Many of these donations were accompanied by According to MI5 records, Anthony Carrit was at Reading University in 1933. With his brother, Noel, he letters telling of the donors’ part in the Civil War as All the members of the committee had, at one time served in a Spanish Medical Aid Committee unit with Thora Silverthorne, and others. Serving as an campaigners in support of the Spanish Republic, as or another, been involved in fundraising for various ambulance driver, he disappeared during the Battle of Brunete in July 1937, and is presumed to have been collectors of funds for medical aid, for food and causes, but this was foreign territory for us. It was at killed during a Nationalist air attack. clothing for the Spanish civilian population and in this point that NALGO (now UNISON) official Keith

14 7 Jerrome had the inspired idea of enlisting the advice carve the statue; his choice was Portland stone. Frank Hillsley of sculptor and ‘Keeper of Art’ at Reading Museum, At the time We Cannot Park on Both Sides was written Frank Hillsley was known only from two short articles Eric Stanford. Eric’s credentials were impeccable. The generous and active assistance of Reading in the Reading Standard. Indeed, his claims sparked controversy between the authors and Bill Alexander, He was a former socialist county councillor and a Borough Council (RBC) -– in particular the although the latter did eventually concede that the circumstantial detail in Hillsley’s account suggested he had sculptor with a growing reputation who, by a fitting charismatic chair of the RBC Arts Committee, been in Spain. coincidence, had received his first lessons in councillor Kevin McDevitt and the amazingly carving from Jose Alberdi who, as a young boy, energetic councillor John Silverthorne – has to be MI5 knew of him, recording ‘9.11.37 Returned from Spain. Has fought with Government forces. Communist.’. became a refugee from the civil war in this country. placed on record. John suffered from a vision defect Hillsley spoke to the Reading Standard within a couple of weeks of the MI5 note, but his connection with On learning of Eric’s reputation as a sculptor, the and was almost blind, but carried out his duties – Reading is wholly unclear. He was from London, with his next of kin listed as a Mrs Chadwick of Great Bland RIBMC had no hesitation in inviting this committed with the aid of a ‘reader’ – as a popular local council- Street SE1. anti-fascist to produce a design for a stone lor whilst at the same time holding down his job as a monument. Eric responded by saying it was “the school teacher. Sadly Kevin McDevitt and John Hillsley stated that he had fought in the defence of Madrid, at Jarama and at Brunete. By October 1937 he most exciting thing I have ever been asked to do”. Silverthorne (whose sister, Thora, served with the had deserted from his Battalion, was arrested and sent back to the UK at the date shown in his MI-5 record. International Brigades), both died tragically at an Although he told the Reading Standard that he intended to go and fight in China, he was still in the UK in early age and did not live to see the statue – which 1938, as he attempted to claim travel expenses from the Foreign Office. they both supported wholeheartedly – unveiled in May 1990. But the names of both of these References remarkable anti-fascist young men will always be Mike Cooper, Frank Hillsley, George Middleton and John Beale: the “missing” Reading volunteers in Spain associated with this monument. 1936-37. Unpublished file note, 2000.

Reading Borough Council donated the land on which the statue stood for years outside the old Civic Offices. RBC also granted sculptor Eric Stanford, who was at that time an employee of the Council, paid leave of absence to work on the monument. Without the huge assistance and generous help afforded by RBC, the monument to Reading’s he- roes of the Spanish Civil War would not, in all probability, be the imposing work of art that we witness today.

We also acknowledge the very generous provision by the University of Reading of a spacious studio for Eric to carve his statue. The original drawings and designs for the monument were all donated by him to the university and are now housed in the History of Art department.

During the period in which Eric was carving the statue, he was paid regular visits by former International Brigade British Battalion Commander Bill Alexander. (Bill was the secretary of the International Brigade Association, the organisation of veterans of the IB, now called the International Brigade Memorial Trust.) I was in regular The Statue as new in 1990 correspondence with Bill during this period and can attest to the fact that he was a copious letter writer Eric Stanford’s sketches of the memorial in its setting outside the then Civic Centre with particular fondness for Reading, as he had been Within weeks Eric presented us with his drawings a student at the university in the early 1930s. But he Jimmy Moon for the monument, and little time was wasted on also viewed Reading’s monument with particular Remembered by many who met him as a great character amongst many, Jimmy Moon was working at agreeing to the form the statue would take. As I pride, and with a profound respect for its sculptor. Reading University when he decided to volunteer to go to Spain. recollect there was only one occasion when some of us demurred at one of the drawings which showed A number of photographs of this tough ex-soldier of A Londoner, Moon served as a machine gunner in No.2 Company, British Battalion. He was captured by the grieving Spanish mother holding a guitar, the two wars (the Spanish Civil War and World War Nationalist forces on his first day in action, 31 March 1938, and spent over a year in prison camps. His national musical instrument of Spain. Almost Two) exist of him gazing, deep in thought, at the memories of this time have proved a valuable source for accounts of the harsh conditions experienced by immediately Eric produced another drawing showing statue to his fallen comrades at the monument’s prisoners of war. a dead child in its mother’s arms, symbolising the unveiling ceremony. I saw Bill a few times after the death of the Republic. This remarkable artist was unveiling and he always asked after the monument References way ahead of us. The decision to endorse Eric’s and whether it was being taken care of. Most of all, http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/content/prisoners-san-pedro-de-carde%C3%B1a last accessed alternative was greeted with enthusiasm and it was he always had a few special words to say regarding 21.03.2015. left to Eric to choose the material from which to his pride in the Reading memorial.

8 13 Camp was arrested in October 1936 under the official secrets act, for having given design information to Soviet agents. As Jim Carmody has pointed out, whatever his involvement it cannot have been substantial as he was only bound over. He arrived in Spain in October 1937, serving with the British Battalion’s communications company. He may have been wounded, and was certainly hospitalised. Camp deserted in September 1938, but was repatriated to the UK with the rest of the British volunteers in December that year.

References Richard Baxell, personal communication to Mike Cooper 15.11.2013 Jim Carmody, personal communications to Mike Cooper 23.05.2011 and 13.11.2013

Evan Ellis Evan Ellis worked as an assistant in a chemist’s shop in Reading for a time, and wrote to the Communist Party in Reading from Spain, indicating that we was an ex member. Bill Ball’s father ran a chemist shop, and it would be interesting to know if there was any connection between the two. He is not mentioned in any of the Reading sources at the time, so it’s probable that he was not in Reading when he decided to go to Spain.

Born in Maesteg in South Wales, Ellis arrived in Spain in January 1937, at about the same time as Bill Ball. He fought at Jarama, was wounded at Brunete (July 1937) and worked as a pharmacist at the Base Hospital established in a former monastery at Huete. He was repatriated to the United Kingdom in May 1938.

References Jim Carmody, personal communication to Mike Cooper, 23.05.2011

Archibald “Josh” Francis Josh Francis was a company commander in the British Battalion when he was mortally wounded on the first day of the Nationalist Aragon offensive in March 1938. He is named on the Reg Saxton, Thora Silverthorne and Jimmy Moon at the monument's unveiling outside Reading Civic Centre, May 1990. Reading memorial.

Before joining the British Battalion as Saturday 5 May was chosen as the monument’s Once again, Reading Borough Council has come to quartermaster before the Battle of Jarama, dedication day. It turned out to be a gloriously warm the rescue, and the memorial is to be sited in the Francis worked as an administrator in Paris. He and sunny occasion, with a crowd of three to four prestigious Forbury Gardens in central Reading. had attended Reading school, where he served hundred assembled outside the Civic Centre. in the Officer Training Corps, and worked in Councillor Maureen Lockey, Mayor of Reading, The Forbury is a beautiful park where other statues, Reading in insurance. He was a committed enthusiastically welcomed our invitation to perform including the famous Reading Lion, are sited, along Communist. the unveiling. The task of chairing the open air with the memorial to the soldiers of Reading who gathering fell to me as Chairman/Correspondence died during the Burma campaign of World War Two. Secretary of the RIBMC. I was very conscious of this Part of the Forbury is also believed to have played a honour and somewhat nervous of what was surely a part in the English Civil War of the 17th Century. highly critical gathering of Labour Movement The park is very popular with the citizens of veterans, not to mention the eight or nine veterans of Reading, and during the summer months the International Brigade. We did not want many hundreds of workers from the surrounding offices speeches and, as it was an unusually hot day for and shops can be seen taking their lunches whilst early May with little shade in the vicinity of the statue, enjoying the pleasures of an English summer’s I made sure that my opening remarks were a lesson day. The monument to Reading’s fallen of the in brevity. Everything went as smoothly as we could Spanish Civil War could not have found a more have wished. The statue on the day was wrapped in impressive home. a huge flag in the colours of the Spanish Republic. It Josh Francis’ MI5 record card was a memorable occasion for all of us and the local In 1996 the International Brigade Association press and television gave wide coverage to the (forerunner of the International Brigade Memorial Francis served at Jarama, and was wounded at event. Trust) published a splendid volume lavishly Brunete, moving for a time to a post at the illustrating the memorials to International Brigaders Internationals’ base at Albacete. On leave after Twenty five years have passed since the Reading in the British Isles and the Irish Republic. The front Jarama, he spoke at a public meeting in International Brigade monument was unveiled. Now it of its dust jacket, to the immense pride of IB Reading. Josh Francis at home in Reading has been compelled, as a result of redevelopment in supporters in Reading, was dominated by Eric the area where the statue previously stood, to find a Stanford’s monument along with a superimposed Like Bill Ball, Josh Francis has no known grave. new home.

12 9 Reading Volunteers in Spain

Soldiers

Bill Alexander Rising to command the British Battalion XV International Brigade, Bill Alexander studied chemistry at Reading University. Uncompromisingly tough and professional, he presented an image very different from the “amateur” picture of volunteers in Spain that has passed into popular memory. Having campaigned against the British Union of Fascists in London, he went on to serve in World War II, and later as a leading Communist Party organiser. His British Volunteers for Liberty (Wishart,1982) remains the starting point for many accounts of the British in Spain.

References http://spartacus-educational.com/SPalexanderB.htm last accessed 21.03.2015

Eric Camp a.k.a “Tommy Botting” A chance conversation with a former worker at Phillips and Powis aircraft factory – better known as Miles – in Woodley and correspondence with the ever helpful Jim Carmody led to details about Camp, whom the historian Richard Baxell has described as a “serial fantasist”. He was remembered as Tommy Botting, and as having served in Spain Eric Camp was from Middlesex, and in 1936 worked as an aeronautical engineer for Phillips and Powis. He was also a qualified pilot, and had served in the British army. He was a communist, but also claimed at times to have been a professional crook and a Soviet spy.

Bill Ball Bill Ball is named on the Reading International Brigades Memorial. Ball died in hospital of wounds received at the Battle Of Jarama on 22 January 1937. He was 21. By that time he had only been The Memorial before cleaning and restoration, c.2012 The newly cleaned Memorial May, 2015 in Spain for a matter of weeks, having left Reading in December 1936. He was an active Communist and like Josh Francis had been in the Officer photo by the internationally acclaimed ‘Magnum’ Training Corps at Reading School. photographer Robert Capa, of the Republican Our magnificent and striking monument, sculpted by offensive along the Segre riverfront near Fraga the talented and committed anti-fascist artist Eric On 14 February 1937 Bill Ball was part of a Maxim (Aragon Province) in October 1938. Stanford, is now installed in its new home here in machine gun team fighting to stop Nationalist the Forbury Gardens. It is there not just to remind us forces advancing on Madrid. The actual details There are now three times the number of memorials of the commitment and courage of our heroes who of his fatal wounding come from eye witnesses in Britain and Ireland today than existed in 1996. fought and died fighting fascism, but that freedom and are contradictory. The premier historian of the Spanish Civil War, Paul everywhere was never achieved without struggle Preston, has described it as the first battle of World and sacrifice. It seems that, with a comrade, Ball had kept his War II. The same reasons for which our country had maxim in action, finally disabling the gun before to go to war in September 1939 are the same ones ¡No Pasaran! withdrawing and being re-assigned as a rifleman, that the International brigades of the Spanish Civil and then as a “runner” for the British Battalion War of 1936-39 fought and died for: the knowledge Ray Parkes commander Jock Cunningham. that a fascist victory would mean racial and May 2015. political persecution for all those who opposed this Cunningham’s party were hit by shellfire – stated vile, barbaric creed. by one source to have come from Nationalist tanks – and Ball was hit. His death was The International Brigades warned the world of the commemorated in a meeting held in the Labour barbarism of fascism so that, when World War II Hall in Minster Street and in a piece written in April finally began we were better prepared to fight and 1937 for the Reading Citizen. defeat it. But as we all know now, the price was colossal in terms of human suffering and material As part of the work in preparation for the cost. rededication of the Memorial, Ball’s family lent Reading International Brigades Memorial Committee a scrapbook including wild flowers they Bill Ball had collected from the battlefield at Jarama. 10 11