International Brigade Plaque Middlesbrough Town Hall
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International Brigade Plaque Middlesbrough Town Hall Prelude In Spain on the evening of 17th July 1936, a pre-planned Army revolt began; rebel soldiers disarmed Officers loyal to the Republican government, before declaring a region free from governmental control. The army’s rising was supported by the fascist Falange Party and some Civil Guard units, who often acted on their own. In Morocco, Mallorca, and some other areas the rising was generally successful. However, in most areas, including the major cities of Madrid and Barcelona, the rebels were met with bitter and effective resistance from loyal members of the Civil Guard and from workers’ militias who seized arms despite government instructions. As the air force and the navy remained loyal to the government the resistance in the major centres made it likely that the army coup would fail, as had an army coup in 1932. This time was different however, the unruly officers received significant support, the most noteworthy being the British Government: MI6 operative Major Hugh Pollard charted a plane, piloted by another MI6 operative Cecil Bebb, they collected Franco, effectively in exile on the Canary Islands and flew him to Morocco. The German Air force (Luftwaffe) then transported the 18,000 strong, brutally trained Spanish Army of Africa from their barracks in Morocco the short distance across the Mediterranean to the Spanish mainland, where as head of the only unified army in Spain Franco quickly replaced the imprisoned de Rivera as leader of the Falange Party, proclaiming himself Head of State and Government under the title El Caudillo. On 14th September 1936 a non-intervention pact was agreed with Germany, Italy the USSR, France, USA and the UK the major signatories. Franco, however, continued to receive substantial military support from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in direct contravention of the agreement. In October, in order to maintain the non- intervention policy, the Soviet Union called on the Communist International (Comintern) to organise Brigades of Volunteers. The International Brigades offered Stalin an opportunity to support the Spanish Republic without breaking the non-intervention pact, he was trying to form an alliance against Hitler, therefore he had no wish to alienate Britain and France. The French and particularly the British imposed strict non-intervention regulations; in Britain on 9th January 1937, with all-Party support, the National Government invoked and amended The Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870; the 1870 Act had made it illegal to recruit mercenaries, the 1937 amendment now made it illegal to also volunteer as a mercenary. The Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Munitions to Spain) Act passed the same day, made it illegal to send anything that could be of military use to the Spanish Government. The French- Spanish border was closed, and Royal Navy Warships enforced what was effectively a naval blockade of Republican Spain. On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in September 1936, Middlesbrough born David Marshall had travelled to Spain to join the forming International Brigades in Barcelona, along with Esmond Romilly he joined one of the first International Brigade groups, the German Thaelmann Battalion, with whom he fought to defend Madrid. On 12th November 1936, a sniper’s bullet hit him just above his ankle. He was removed by stretcher under heavy fire, then transported to a field hospital. After treatment in Alicante he was repatriated to England at the end of 1936 where he began campaigning for aid to be sent to the Spanish Government. Members of the British Tom Mann unit in Barcelona in September 1936. Left to right: Sid Avner, Nat Cohen, Ramona, Tom Winteringham, George Tioli, Jack Barry and David Marshall The Teesside International Brigades Memorial The text on the plaque reads: TO DEFEND LIBERTY . they typified the real Britons hatred of the tyrant, they went to safeguard peace and the arts of peace that humanity might go forward. They went to help the defenceless Spanish people fight the invading armies. They went to save their loved ones and us from the horrors of fascism. because they loved peace they went out to fight from . TEES-SIDE The Teesside International Brigades Memorial is an oak board, with a triangular pediment top. The lettering and International Brigade crest are hand painted. It shows the International Brigades Crest, the names of ten volunteers who fell, an inscription and a list of XV Brigade Battle Honours. The idea for a memorial arose during a 1939 meeting in the offices of the Young Communist League (YCL) in Middlesbrough, on Marton Road, it was to be a memorial to their friends and comrades who lost their lives fighting Fascism with the International Brigades. We believe George Short Chaired the meeting, the people attending included: George’s wife Phyllis International Brigaders Tommy Chilvers, Otto Estensen, David Goodman and David Marshall. Harold Bennet attended, but we have no records for the others who were also present. It is possible that the Teesside memorial is the first to be produced in the UK, it is certainly one of the earliest memorials to International Brigaders in Britain.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. Born in Middlesbrough, Tommy Chilvers, who served in the Anti-Tank Battery of the XV International Brigade from May to August 1937 painted the lettering and crest on the Memorial. I have recently been told local Communists call it ‘Tommy’s plaque.’ Names on the Teesside memorial Joseph Myles Harding, Born 1909, Stockton – Scaffolder. Arrived in Spain 22nd January 1937, Killed 23rd September 1938. Ebro David Halloran CP, Born 1898, South Bank, Middlesbrough – Bricklayer. Arrived in Spain 17th February 1937, Killed 27th February 1937. Jarama Martin Durkin, Born 1915, Eston, Middlesbrough – Painter. Arrived in Spain 5th November 1937, Reported missing, March 1938. Death cert. issued 30th August 1938. Aragon Ron Dennison (William Meredith) CP, Born 1914, Bellingham, Northumberland – Labourer. Arrived in Spain 14th January 1937. No.2 Company Commander, Killed 6th July 1937. Villanueva de la Canada, Brunete Wilf Jobling CP, Born 1909, Chopwell, Northumberland – Labourer. Arrived in Spain 27th January 1937. No.2 Company Commander, Killed 27th February 1937. Jarama George Bright CP, Born 1877, Thornaby on Tees – Labourer. Arrived in Spain 14th January 1937, Killed 12th February 1937. Jarama Thomas Carter CP, Born 1904, Hartlepool – Labourer. Arrived in Spain 7th January 1937, Killed 27th February 1937. Jarama Robert Elliott CP, Born 1900, Blyth, Northumberland – Town Councillor. Arrived in Spain 7th January 1937. Political Commissar No2. & No.3 Company, Killed 8th July 1937. Brunete Bert Overton CP, Born 1904, Stockton – Docker. Arrived in Spain 1st January 1937. No.4 Company Commander, Killed 8th July 1937 Brunete John Unthank CP, Born 1910, Eston, Middlesbrough – Labourer. Arrived in Spain 10th January 1937, Died (Benicasim Hospital, of wounds sustained at Jarama) 2nd April 1937 Recruitment The North East recruitment of volunteers was organised by a small group of close friends. George Aitken, Wlif Jobling and George Short were all graduates of the International Lenin School in Moscow. George Aitken and George Short were the two Communist Party District Secretaries for the North East of England. George Short was a Communist Party Central Committee member and Teesside Secretary of the, Communist Party organised, National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM), he and his wife Phyllis originated from Chopwell, it was known as ‘Little Moscow’ as it had a Communist Club and Henry Bolton’s Socialist Sunday School. A prodigy of Henry Bolton, Wilf Jobling, was also from Chopwell, he was one of the three NUWM Executive Committee members, along with the Communist Councillor for Blyth, Bob Elliott. Newspaper reports show Wilf Jobling speaking alongside George Short from the platform at Stockton’s May Day rallies prior to the Spanish Civil War. This network of friends vetted and organised the volunteers; the Stockton Brigader Otto Estensen has written George Short as his Communist Party contact on his Biografia de Militantes held in the RGASPI Archives. David Goodman, a Middlesbrough Brigader, writes in his From the Tees to the Ebro that George Short recruited him, and later attended Brigader reunions on David Marshall’s boat in London. In a fragment of an interview held by Manchester’s Labour History archive George Short describes part of the process: I used to meet them and before they left the area, that night, they’d have a cup of tea and a bite at our house, and then I would say to them, you know, ‘make up your mind. If you don’t want to go – no hard feelings. You’re going there; you may not come back.’ We never had one withdraw. We lost the flower of the party. [George was quite upset at this point so I turned off the tape recorder](CP IND Kett 5 4001 – Labour History Archive, Manchester) George stated in another interview in the 1960s that recruiting for the International Brigades was one of the hardest things he did, because he knew that many would not be coming back; of the twenty one volunteers from Teesside, eight did not return.Once selected the volunteers would be organised into groups which would travel to Spain, via London. The Volunteers Richard Baxell has shown that of the 2,300 volunteers that came from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, roughly 80% were members of the Communist Party (CP) or the ‘more socially acceptable’ Young Communist League (YCL) and Labour League for Youth (LLY), but there was no bar on volunteers who were not Communist.