To help in the teaching of history of the International Brigades and the impact of the Spanish Civil War in Britain and in Spain, the IBMT have prepared educational materials aimed at 11-18 year olds. Currently these can be found in the IBMT section of the teaching resources section of the Times Educational Supplement website [a login is required].

Currently the following lessons are available:

The Spanish Civil War and….. A series of lessons, each dedicated to a particular community looking at the effects of the Spanish War through the involvement of Brigade Members, Refugees, Aid for Spain and preparations for war.

Medical progress and war: case study Spanish Civil War

Who should go on a war memorial?

Do buildings have guilt?

Don’t mention [the Spanish Civil] War.

When was appeasement a good idea?

Take me out [Mussolini] aka Blind Date

The International Brigades

Why did people join the International Brigades?

The Spanish Civil War: an overview

Intervention - Germany and Italy in the Spanish Civil War

The militia: defending the Republic 1936

The war begins – Spain 1936 [Popular Front]

Why was the Spanish Civil War important?

Why did the Spanish Republic lose?

The Basque child refugees

Taking sides: The Spanish Civil War begins

The causes of the Spanish Civil War

Aid for Spain: raising money for Spanish causes

Franco’s Spain

Franco’s Spain – the impact of his rule.

Dad’s Army and the Spanish Civil War

Further materials are being developed and will be added. For further assistance contact: admin@international-brigades.org.uk

Map of the British Battalion in Spain

Works on Britain, Ireland and the Spanish Civil War

National studies:

Buchanan, Tom. Britain and the Spanish Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

-- The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on Britain. War, Loss and Memory. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2007.

Francis, Hywell, Miners Against Fascism: Wales and the Spanish Civil War. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984, republished 2012.

-- ‘“Say Nothing and Leave in the Middle of the Night”: The Spanish Civil War Revisited’, History Workshop Journal, 32, Autumn 1991 pp.69-76.

Gray, Daniel. Homage to Caledonia. Edinburgh, Luath Press, 2008.

McGarry, Fearghal. Irish Politics and the Spanish Civil War. Cork: Cork University Press, 1999.

Stradling, Robert. The Irish and the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Crusades in Conflict. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.

-- Wales and the Spanish Civil War: The Dragon's Dearest Cause. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2004.

Regional studies:

Cooper, Mike and Parkes, Ray. We Cannot Park on Both Sides: Reading volunteers in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. Reading: Reading International Brigades Memorial Committee, 2000.

Eaton, George. Neath and the Spanish Civil War. Neath: Privately published, 1980.

Farman, Chris, Rose Valery & Woolley, Liz. No Other Way. Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-9. Oxford: OIBMC, 2015.

Squires, M. The Aid to Spain Movement in Battersea 1936-1939. London: Elmfield Publications, 1994.

Stradling, Robert. Cardiff and the Spanish Civil War. Cardiff: Butetown History and Arts Project, 1996.

Watson, Don and Corcoran, John. An Inspiring Example: The North East of England and the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. McGuffin, 1996.

The British government's responses to the war:

Ball, S. ‘The Politics of Appeasement: The Fall of the Duchess of Atholl and the Kinross and West-Perth by-election, December 1938’, Scottish Historical Review, 187, April 1990, pp.49-85.

Buchanan, Tom. 'Edge of Darkness: British "Front-line" Diplomacy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1937', Contemporary European History, 12:3, 2003, pp.279-303.

Day, Peter. Franco's Friends: How British Intelligence Helped Bring Franco to Power in Spain. London: Biteback, 2011.

Edwards, Jill. The British Government and the Spanish Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1979.

Mackenzie, S.P. ‘The Foreign Enlistment Act and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939’, Twentieth Century History, 10:1, 1999, pp.52-66.

Moradiellos, Enrique. ‘The Origins of British Non-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War: Anglo-Spanish Relations in early 1936’, European History Quarterly, 21:3, July 1991, pp.339-364.

-- ‘Appeasement and Non-Intervention: British policy during the Spanish Civil War’, in Peter Catterall and C.J. Morris, eds, Britain and the threat to stability in Europe, 1918-47. London: Leicester University Press, 1993, pp.94-104.

-- ‘The British Government and the Spanish Civil War’, International Journal of Iberian Studies, 12:1, 1999, pp.4-13.

Stone, Glyn. ‘Britain, Non-Intervention and the Spanish Civil War’, European Studies Review. 9, 1979, pp.129-149.

The aid-Spain and labour movements:

Alpert, Michael. ‘Humanitarianism and Politics in the British Response to the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39’, European History Quarterly, 14:4, October 1984, pp.423-439.

Buchanan, Tom. The British Labour Movement and the Spanish Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

-- ‘Britain’s Popular Front? Aid Spain and the British Labour Movement’, History Workshop Journal. 31, 1991, pp.60-72.

Errock, Heather Mary. ‘The Attitude of the Labour Party to the Spanish Civil War’, M.A. Thesis, University of Keele, 1980.

Fleay, C. and Saunders, M.L. ‘The Labour Spain Committee: Labour Party Policy and the Spanish Civil War’, The Historical Journal, 28:1, 1985, pp.187-197.

Fyrth, Jim. The Signal Was Spain. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1986.

-- ‘The Aid for Spain Movement in Britain’, in Joyce M. Bellamy and John Saville eds, Dictionary of Labour Biography. London: Macmillan, 1993, pp.25-32.

-- ‘The Aid Spain Movement in Britain 1936-1939’, History Workshop Journal, 35, 1993 pp.153-164.

Mendlesohn, Farah. Quaker Relief Work in the Spanish Civil War. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002.

Squires, M. The Aid to Spain Movement in Battersea 1936-1939. London: Elmfield Publications, 1994.

The media:

Aldgate, Anthony. Cinema and History-British Newsreels and the Spanish Civil War. London: Scholar Press, 1979.

Deacon, David.British News Media and the Spanish Civil War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2008.

Shelmerdine, L.B. ‘Britons in an ‘un-British’ war: domestic newspapers and the participation of UK nationals in the Spanish Civil War’, North West Labour History, 22, 1997-1998, pp.20-47.

-- British Representations of the Spanish Civil War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006.

Popular and political opinion:

Buchanan, Tom. ‘A Far Away Country Of Which We Know Nothing?’, Twentieth Century British History, 4:1, 1993, pp.1-24.

Flint, J. ‘Must God go Fascist? English Catholic Opinion and the Spanish Civil War’, Church History, 56, 1987, pp.264-274.

García, Hugo. The Truth About Spain! Mobilising British Public Opinion, 1936-1939. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2010.

Greene, Thomas R. ‘The English Catholic Press and the Second Spanish Republic, 1931-1936’, Church History, 45:1, 1976 pp.70-84.

Mates, Lewis H. The Spanish Civil War and The British Left. London: Taurus, 2007.

Walton, John K. ‘British Perceptions of Spain and their Impact on Attitudes to the Spanish Civil War: Some Additional Evidence’, Twentieth Century British History, 5:3, 1994, pp.283-299.

Watkins, K.W. Britain Divided: The Effect of the Spanish Civil War on British Political Opinion. London: Nelson, 1963.

Works on British volunteers in other roles in Spain

For the Republicans:

Bridgeman, Brian. The Flyers: the untold story of British and Commonwealth airmen in the Spanish Civil War and other air wars from 1919 to 1940. Swindon: B. Bridgman, 1989.

Buchanan, Tom. ‘The Death of Bob Smillie, the Spanish Civil War, and the Eclipse of the Independent Labour Party’, Historical Journal, 40:2, 1997, pp.435-464.

-- ‘The Lost Art of Felicia Browne’, History Workshop Journal, 54, 2002, pp.181-201.

Dolan, Chris. An Anarchist's Story: The Life of Ethel MacDonald. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2009.

Hall, Christopher. In Spain with Orwell. Perth: Tippermuir, 2013.

Jackson, Angela. British Women and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39, London: Routledge, 2002 second revised edition published by Warren & Pell, 2009.

-- Beyond the Battlefield. Testimony, memory and Remeberance of a Cave Hospital in the Spanish Civil War. Pontypool: Warren & Pell, 2004.

Palfreeman, Linda. ¡Salud! British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Services, 1926-1939. Sussex Academic Press, 2012.

-- Aristocrats, Adventurers and Ambulances. Sussex Academic Press, 2014.

-- Spain Bleeds. Sussex Academic Press, 2015.

Stradling, R. ‘Orwell and the Spanish Civil War: a historical critique’, in Christopher Norris, ed., Inside The Myth. Orwell: views from the Left. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984 pp.103-125.

Sugarman, Martin. ‘Against Fascism - British Jews who served in the Spanish Civil War’, in Fighting Back; Anglo-Jewry’s contribution. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2009.

Thwaites, Peter. ‘The ILP Contingent in the Spanish Civil War’, Imperial War Museum Review, 1987 pp.50-61.

For the Nationalists:

Keene, Judith. Fighting for Franco. London: Leicester University Press, 2001.

Othen, Christopher. Franco's International Brigades. London: Reportage, 2008.

Works by other British in Spain

Atholl, Katherine. Searchlight on Spain. London: Penguin, 1938

Brockway, Fenner. The Truth About Barcelona. London: ILP, 1937?

Buckley, Henry. The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1939, reissued by IB Tauris, 2013.

Cardozo, Harold. The March of a Nation: My Year in Spain’s Civil War. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1937.

Chalmers-Mitchell, Peter. My House in Malaga. London: Faber & Faber, 1938.

Gascoyne, David. Journal 1936-7. London: Enitharmon Press, 1980.

Cox, Geoffrey. The Defence of Madrid. London: Gollancz, 1937 reissued by Otago University Press, 2006.

Green, Nan. A Chronicle of Small Beer. Nottingham, 2004.

Greene, Herbert. Secret Agent in Spain. London: Robert Hale, 1938.

Haldane, Charlotte. Truth Will Out. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1949.

Kemp, Peter, Mine Were of Trouble. London: Cassells, 1957.

-- The Thorns of Memory. London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1990.

Koestler, Arthur. Spanish Testament. London: Victor Gollancz, 1937.

-- Invisible Writing. London: Collins, 1954.

Langdon-Davies, John. Behind The Spanish Barricades. London: Secker & Warburg, 1936 reissued by Reportage Press, 2007.

Lunn, Arnold. Spanish Rehearsal for World War: An eyewitness account of the Spanish Civil War. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1937.

MacKee, Seamus. I Was a Franco Soldier. London: United Editorial, 1938.

Manning, Leah. A Life for Education. London: Victor Gollancz, 1970.

McNair, John. In Spain Now. London: ILP, 1936 or 1937

McNair, John. Spanish Diary. Leeds: ILP, 1938?

Orwell, George. ‘Spilling the Spanish Beans’, New English Weekly, 29 July & 2 September 1937.

Orwell, George. ‘Eye Witness in Barcelona’, Controversy, 11, 1938

Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, 1938, subsequently reissued.

Orwell, George. ‘Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War’, from England your England. London: Secker and Warburg, 1953.

Pitcairn, Frank. Reporter in Spain. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1936.

Pollitt, Harry.  Spain and the T.U.C. London: CPGB, 1936.

Scott-Ellis, Pricilla. The Chances of Death. Norwich: Michael Russell, 1995.

Spender, Stephen. World Within World. London: Readers Union, 1951.

Steer, G.L. The Tree of Gernika. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1938.

Toynbee, Philip. Friends Apart. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980.

Worsley, T.C. Behind the Battle. London: Robert Hale, 1939.

Biographies of and interviews with British and Irish volunteers

On specific volunteers:

Bennett, Richard. ‘Portrait of a Killer’, New Statesman, 24 March 1961, pp.471-472 (Article on George Nathan).

Cronin, Seán. Frank Ryan: The Search for the Republic. Dublin: Repsol, 1979.

Fernbach, David. ‘Tom Wintringham and Socialist Defence Strategy’, History Workshop Journal, 14, Autumn 1982, pp.63-91.

Hall, Christopher. Disciplina Camaradas: four English volunteers in Spain 1936-39. Pontefract: Gosling Press, 1994 (A study of the role in Spain of Maurice Levine, Bernard McKenna, David Goodman and Stafford Cottman).

Harrison, Stanley. Good to be Alive: The Story of Jack Brent. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1954.

Hurst, Steve. Famous Faces of the Spanish Civil War. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2009 (Contains portraits of Peter Kemp, John Cornford and Esmond Romilly, among others).

Jackson, Angela. 'For Us it was Heaven': The Passion, Grief and Fortitude of Patience Darton. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2012.

Klaus, H. Gustav, ed. Strong Words, Brave Deeds: The Poetry, Life and Times of Thomas O’Brien, Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1994.

Lewis, Brian and Gledhill, Bill. A Lion of a Man. Yorkshire Art Circus, 1985 (Includes 'Pounded Earth' by Tommy James).

Lewis, Greg. A Bullet Saved My Life: The remarkable adventures of Bob Peters. Pontypool: Warren & Pell, 2006.

MacDougall, Ian. ‘Tom Murray: Veteran of Spain’, Cencrastus, 18, Autumn 1984, pp.16-19.

Martin, Sylvia. Ink in Her Veins: the troubled life of Aileen Palmer. Crawley, WA: UWA Publishing, 2016.

Nugent, Steve. No Coward Soul: Jack Nalty (1902-1938). Toronto: Firehouse Productions, 2003.

Preston, Paul. Doves of War. London: Harper Collins, 2002 (includes a chapter on Nan Green).

Purcell, Hugh. The Last English Revolutionary: Tom Wintringham 1898-1949. Stroud: Sutton, 2004 & revised second edition, Sussex Academic Press, 2013.

Quinn, Michael. The Making of an Irish Communist Leader. The Life and Times of Michael O'Riordan, 1938-1947. Dublin: CPI, 2011.

Stansky, Peter and Abrahams, William. Journey to the Frontier: Two Roads to the Spanish Civil War. London: Constable. 1966 (On Julian Bell and John Cornford).

Wainwright, John L. The Last to Fall. The Life and Letters of Ivor Hickman. Southampton: Hatchett Green, 2013.

Whetter, James. A British hero: Christopher St. Joihn Sprigg aka Christopher Caudwell. Gorran: Lyfrow Trelyspen, 2011.

Collections of interviews:

Arthur, Max. The Real Band of Brothers. London: Collins, 2009.

Cook, Judith. Apprentices of Freedom. London: Quartet Press, 1979

Corkhill, D., and Rawnsley, S. eds. The Road to Spain: Anti Fascists at War 1936-1939. Fife: Borderline, 1981.

Crowley, Mike. ‘Rebels Against Rebels’, North West Labour History, 22, 1997-1998. pp.78-81.

Darman, Peter. Heroic Voices of the Spanish Civil War. London: New Holland, 2009.

MacDougall, Ian ed. Voices from the Spanish Civil War: Personal Recollections of Scottish Volunteers in Republican Spain, 1936-1939, Edinburgh: Polygon, 1986.

Works by and memoirs of British members of the International Brigades in Spain

Unpublished:

Albrighton, James. Diaries. International Brigade Archive, Box 50 File Al/12.

Anon. The Epic of Arganda Bridge. IBA, Box B-4 File L/8.

Crook, David. That Valley in Spain called Jarama. Available on-line

Green, Oliver; Piper, Alec; Aitken, George; Meredith, Bill; Diamont, Andre; McElroy, James; and McAnaw T. The British Brigade. Fred Copeman Collection, Imperial War Museum.

Griffiths, W.J. Spain. Memoirs of the Spanish Civil War. Swansea Miner’s Library.

Harrisson, P.D. Interesting Times. Private collection, contact the IBMT.

Hearst, Louis. The First Twelve. Private collection, contact the IBMT.

Longstaff, John. Unpublished Memoir. Private collection, contact the IBMT.

Murphy, Molly. Nurse Molly. People's History Museum, Manchester.

Peet, Jon. Nuts and Bolts of Spanish War. IBA Box A-12 File Pe/3.

Steventon, Sydney. Impressions of the Spanish War. IBA Box 21 File H-18.

Thompson, W.M. Sojourn in Spain. IBA Box 50 File Th/1.

Published:

Most of the following works can be found either at the Marx Memorial Library, or the British Library in London. The British Library's catalogue can be consulted on-line.

Alexander, Bill. British Volunteers for Liberty. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1982.

Angus, John. With The International Brigade in Spain. Loughborough: 1983.

Anon. In Spain with the International Brigade: A personal narrative. London: Burns Oates and Washborne, 1938.

Bloomfield, Tommy. The Spanish Civil War of Tommy Bloomfield. Fife Federation of Trades Councils, 2006.

Britten Austin, F. On the Aragon Battlefront. London: Nicholls, Date unknown.

Clark, Bob. No Boots to my Feet: experiences of a Britisher in Spain 1937-38. Student Bookshops, 1984.

Coleman, Julius. Memories of Spain 1936-1938. Manchester: Privately published, Date unknown.

Cooney, Bob. Proud Journey. London: MML, 2015.

Copeman, Fred. Reason in Revolt. London: Blandford Press, 1948.

Cornford, John. Understand the Weapon, Understand the Wound: Collected Writings. Manchester: Carcanet, 1978. Republished 2016.

Coward, Jack. Back from the Dead. Liverpool: Merseyside Writers, Date unknown.

Deegan, Frank. There’s No Other Way. Liverpool: Toulouse Press, 1980.

Doyle, Bob. Brigadista: An Irishman’s Fight Against Fascism. Blackrock: Currach Press, 2006.

Elstob, Peter. Spanish Prisoner. London: Macmillan, 1939.

Foote, Alexander. Handbook for Spies. London: 1949, reissued by Coachwhip Publications, 2011.

Fraser, Hamish. The Truth About Spain. Oxford: Catholic Social Guild, 1949.

Fyvel, Penelope. English Penny. Ilfracombe: Arthur Stockwell, 1992.

Graham, Frank, ed.  The Battle of Jarama. Newcastle: Frank Graham, 1987.

Graham, Frank. Battles of Brunete and the Aragon. Newcastle: Frank Graham, 1999.

Green, Nan. A Chronicle of Small Beer. Nottingham: Trent, 2004.

Greening, Edwin, From Aberdare to Albacete. A Welsh International Brigader’s memoirs of his life. Pontypool: Warren and Pell, 2006.

Gregory, Walter. The Shallow Grave: A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War. London: Victor Gollancz, 1986.

Guest, Carmel Haden. David Guest: A Scientist Fights for Freedom. London: 1939.

Gurney, Jason. Crusade in Spain. London: Faber and Faber, 1974.

Hartwell, Herbert & Evelyn. The Long Weekend. Derby: Postmill Press, 1989.

Hooper, David. No Pasarán! A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War. London: Avon, 1997.

Horne, Harold. All the Trees Were Bread and Cheese. Luton: Owen Hardisty, 1998.

Hyde, Douglas. I Believed. New York: G.P Puttnams, 1950.

James, Tommy. ‘Pounded Earth’, in Lewis, Brian & Gledhill, Bill, A Lion of a Man. Yorkshire Art Circus, 1985.

Jirku, Gusti. We Fight Death: The work of the Medical Service of the International Brigades in Spain. Madrid: Date unknown.

Jones, Jack. Union Man. London: Collins, 1986, new second edition (with new introduction and postscript) issued by Warren & Pell in 2008.

Jump, James. The Fighter fell in Love: a Spanish Civil War Memoir. London: Clapton Press, 2021.

Kisch, Richard. No Pasaran. The Spanish People at War 1936-9. Letchworth: Weyland, 1974.

Knox, Bernard. Essays Ancient and Modern. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Knox, Bernard. Premature Anti-Fascist. New York University, 1998.

Lee, Laurie. A Moment of War. London: Viking, 1991.

Lee Laurie. To War In Spain. London: Penguin, 1996.

Levine, Maurice. Cheetham to Cordova: Maurice Levine, A Manchester Man of the Thirties. Manchester: Privately Published, 1984.

Macartney, W.F.R. Walls Have Mouths. London: Victor Gollancz, 1936.

Martin, Robert. ‘With the International Brigade’, Workers’ Liberty. November 1995 pp.28-30. Originally published in Controversy, September 1937.

Monks, J. With the Reds in Andalusia. London: Privately Printed, 1985.

O’Connor, Peter. Recollections of a socialist and anti-fascist fighter. Dublin: MSF, 1996.

O’Donnell, Paedar. Salud! An Irishman in Spain. London, Methuen, 1937.

O’Riordan, Michael. Connolly Column. Dublin: New Books, 1979.

Paynter, Will. My Generation. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972.

Peet, John. The Long Engagement: Memoirs of a Cold War Legend. London: Fourth Estate, 1989.

Pollak, Stephen. Strange Land Behind Me. London: Falcon, 1951.

Romilly, Esmond. Boadilla. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1937.

Ryan, Frank, ed. The Book of the XVth Brigade: Records of British, American, Canadian and Irish Volunteers in the XV International Brigade in Spain 1936-1938., Madrid: War Commissariat, 1938.

Sloan, Hugh. ‘Why I Volunteered’, Scottish Trade Union Review. 51,, July-September 1991 pp.30-31.

Sommerfield, John. Volunteer in Spain. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1937.

Stratton, H. To Anti-Fascism by Taxi. West Glamorgan: Alun Books, 1984.

Thomas, Fred. To Tilt at Windmills: A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War. East Lansing: State University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Tomalin, Miles. ‘Memories of the Spanish War’, New Statesman, 31 October 1975 pp.541-542.

Trench, Chalmers. Nearly Ninety: Reminiscences. Ballivor: Co. Meath, 1996.

Watson, Keith Scott. Single to Spain. London: Arthur Baker, 1937.

Wheeler, George, edited by David Leach. To Make the People Smile Again. Newcastle: Zymurgy, 2003.

Williams, Alun Menai. From the Rhondda to the Ebro. Pontypool: Warren and Pell, 2004.

Wintringham, Tom. English Captain. London: Faber & Faber, 1939, republished 2011.

Worsley, T.C. Behind the Battle. London: Robert Hale, 1939.

 

Archives holding material on the British volunteers in Spain

Within Britain, there are a number of archives holding material on the British volunteers in Spain.

The main collection of the International Brigade Association (now part of the IBMT) is at the Marx Memorial Library, London. It includes documents compiled by various members of the battalion in Spain, memoir material, photographs and material relating to the work of the IBA after the defeat of the Spanish Republic. The MML has an online searchable catalogue.

Both the Bishopsgate Institute and the Imperial War Museum in London contain collections donated by individual British volunteers. There are a large number of detailed and lengthy interviews with volunteers from the UK and beyond, from both the Republican and Nationalist sides, some of which are held in the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive (there is a full list here), others in the Manchester Historical Archive in the Thameside Local Studies and Archive Centre at Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Also in London are the National Archives at Kew, which apart from the mass of material on the British Government's responses to the war, contains various details relating to volunteers such as their imprisonment and repatriation including a number of files compiled by the security services. The online catalogue can be searched on-line.

The People's History Museum in Manchester has a number of photographs, plus a lot of material from the Communist Party, including Harry Pollitt's papers. There  is also an important Spanish Civil War Collection at the Working Class Movement Library, in nearby Salford.

There is a large holding, focusing on Welsh volunteers, in the Spanish Civil War Collection, in the Swansea Miners' Library, Swansea, and AJEX in London contains details of Jewish volunteers from the UK. The National Museum of Scotalnd holds the papers of some individual Scottish volunteers. The Modern Records Centre at The University of Warwick has a huge collection centred on the responses of the Trade Union Congress, though also a number of other collections on various aspects of the aid-Spain campaigns. 

There are several important collections held outside the United Kingdom. The most significant is ALBA (the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive) in New York, which has copies of much of the material held in the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Recent Historical Documents in Moscow (which are themselves now online. Records for individual British and Irish volunteers begin on page 3). There are also, of course, important archives in Spain itself, including the Archivo General Militar in Avila and the Military Archive in Salamanca.

Works on the British volunteers in Spain

The most recent studies are:

Baxell, Richard. Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism. London: Aurum Press, 2012.

Boyd Haycock, David. I am Spain: The Spanish Civil War and the Men and Women who went to Fight Fascism. Brecon: OLd Street Publishing, 2012.

The following paperback book is based upon the IBMT's acclaimed travelling exhibition:

Baxell, Richard, Jackson Angela & Jump, Jim. Antifascistas: British and Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2010.

Lastly, an academic study, comparing the experiences of British volunteers in the Greek War of Independence of 1821-23, the Spanish Civil War and the war in Finland in 1939:

Roberts, Elizabeth. "Freedom, Faction, Fame and Blood". Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2010.

Works specifically on the British Battalion

There are a number of books on the British Battalion. Three are works by members of the battalion, or its supporters:

Alexander, Bill. British Volunteers for Liberty. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1982.

Ryan, Frank, ed. The Book of the XVth Brigade: Records of British, American, Canadian and Irish Volunteers in the XV International Brigade in Spain 1936-1938, Madrid: War Commissariat, 1938. reissued by Warren & Pell in 2003.

Rust, William. Britons in Spain. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1939, reissued by Warren & Pell in 2003.

There are two academic studies. The first, a rather critical work, draws heavily on the material held in Moscow:

Hopkins, James K. Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War. California: Stanford, 1998.

The second, also using the Moscow material, forms the basis of much of the information on this website:

Baxell, Richard. British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades, 1936-1939. London, Routledge/Cañada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain, 2004 and reissued by Warren & Pell in 2007.

Lastly, the following is based mainly on the battle of Jarama in February 1937:

Hughes, Ben. They Shall Not Pass! The British Battalion at Jarama. Oxford: Osprey, 2011.

The ILP contingent in Spain

George Orwell's account of his experiences in Spain has ensured that the role of the British Independent Labour Party contingent is widely known, though they numbered only a fraction of the number who fought with the International Brigades.

Approximately twenty-five volunteers left for Spain in January 1937 and fought with the POUM militia on the Aragon front. The first half of 1937 saw little action on the Aragon front leading some ILP volunteers, including Orwell, to consider joining the International Brigades in Madrid. However, the involvement of the ILP contingent in the fighting in Barcelona in early May 1937, when they sided with the Anarchists and POUM against the government forces made this out of the question. Instead, they returned to the front at Huesca, until the banning and suppression of the POUM in June meant that those with links to the organisation were in danger of arrest.

Most of the British group returned to the UK, though one member, Bob Smillie, was arrested and later died in prison of appendicitis.

FURTHER READING

Christopher Hall, Not just Orwell': The Independent Labour Party volunteers and the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona: Warren and Pell, 2009

Tom Buchanan, ‘The Death of Bob Smillie, the Spanish Civil War, and the Eclipse of the Independent Labour Party’, Historical Journal, 40:2, 1997, pp.435-464.

George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker and Warburg, 1938.

-- ‘Spilling the Spanish Beans’, New English Weekly, 29 July and 2 September 1937. (Click here for on-line version)

Peter Thwaites, ‘The ILP Contingent in the Spanish Civil War’, Imperial War Museum Review, 1987 pp.50-61

British women in Spain

A number of British women also travelled to Spain to support the Spanish Republic's struggle. Most served in the medical services, where they contributed to the saving of untold numerous lives. Others, such as Nan Green and Winifred Bates, took on political and administrative tasks. One British woman, the sculptor and artist Felicia Browne, was killed fighting with a Spanish militia column in August 1936.

FURTHER READING

Jim Fyrth, The Signal was Spain London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1986.

Penelope Fyvel, English Penny, Ilfracombe: Arthur Stockwell, 1992.

Angela Jackson, British Women and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39, London: Routledge, 2002.

Paul Preston, Doves of War, London: Harper Collins, 2002.

The Medical Services

Advanced dressing station at Brunete, July 1937

Within a month of the outbreak of war in July 1937, supporters of the Spanish Republic in Britain has established the Spanish Medical Aid Committee. The committee collected money for the Republic and established a hospital at Granen, near Huesca. During early 1937, the mdeical unit was incorporated into the Republican 35th division, which also included the British Battalion.

Working in extremely basic conditions, and under tremendous pressure, the volunteers in the medical unit were able to save countless lives, though a number of the unit sacrificed theirs in the process. Techniques developed in the war, particularly the storage of blood for transfusions, conceived by the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune and helped by Reggie Saxton from Reading, and methods of dealing with fractures and associated wounds after surgery developed by Dr. Alex Tudor-Hart, continued to save lives in the Second World war.

FURTHER READING

Bill Alexander, British Volunteers for Liberty, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1982

Jim Fyrth, The Signal Was Spain, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1986.

-- ‘The Aid for Spain Movement in Britain’, in Joyce M. Bellamy and John Saville eds, Dictionary of Labour Biography, London: Macmillan, 1993, pp.25-32.
-- ‘The Aid Spain Movement in Britain 1936-1939’, History Workshop Journal, 35, 1993 pp.153-164.

Gusti Jirku, We Fight Death: The Work of the Medical Service of the International Brigades in Spain, Madrid: Date unknown.