Helen Oclee-Brown reviews ‘A Gypsy and a Rebel: Lillian Urmston in the Spanish Civil War’ by Linda Palfreeman and Alicia García López (The Clapton Press, 2024). Lillian Urmston was only 19 when she volunteered as a nurse in the Spanish Civil War. Driven by a strong sense of social justice, she went to Spain because […]
Jim Jump writes… Apart from working in the food industry in the 1930s, what do bakery worker Basil Abrahams from London’s East End, Bristol cook William Dempsey, Fulham milk roundsman Les Gibson and Hartlepool chef Herbert Riding all have in common? They were among the dozens of bakers and food and hospitality workers who volunteered […]
IBMT Historical Consultant Richard Baxell used his talk at the Trust's July 2024 commemoration in London's Jubilee Gardens to share the story of Battersea volunteer George Wheeler … I’d like to talk to you today about a British volunteer, who lived just down the road from here. He was one of many who were taken prisoner […]
Robert Hargreaves reports from the Oldham Histories Festival, where Graham Briggs gave an illustrated talk about the lives of the Oldhamers who fought in the Spanish Civil War … IBMT stalwart Graham Briggs ensured that Oldham’s ten Brigaders figured prominently in the town’s September history festival. Graham organised and presented an illustrated talk on the […]
IBMT member Robert Hargreaves reports on the campaign for a new memorial in North West England … Proud Salford, for so long overshadowed by the adjacent city of Manchester, is fired up to reclaim its place in the history of the British Battalion and the Spanish Civil War. At least 30 men and women from […]
IBMT Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott shares the story behind an unusual memorial in Carbeth, Scotland … Carbeth is a small hamlet in the beautiful rural hills and woodlands of Stirlingshire, nine miles north of the former shipbuilding town of Clydebank. The history of the Carbeth Hutters begins when returning soldiers from the First World War […]
Article by IBMT Chair Jim Jump for the September/October issue of Educate, journal of the NEU education workers’ union. Not only was the Spanish Civil War one of the major conflicts of the last century. It also has a special place in British trade union and radical history. Yet, despite being a prelude to the […]
This year’s Len Crome Memorial Conversation features a discussion between three leading historians of the Spanish Civil War: Paul Preston, Helen Graham and Richard Baxell. They will be talking on the topic:Public support and governmental obstruction: differing British responses to the struggle of the Spanish Republic. The IBMT-organised event will take place from 2pm to 3.30pm […]
The IBMT's Annual General Meeting was held on 5 October 2024 at The Stable, 129 High Street, Weston-Super-Mare BS23 1HN. These minutes are subject to approval at the 2025 AGM. In attendanceGerry Abrahams, Mike Arnott, Paul Coles (Treasurer), Rowland Davies, Tracy Delaney, Megan Dobney (Secretary), Gary Fabian, Lorene Fabian, Pauline Fraser, Mary Greening, Hilary Jones, […]
The IBMT held its Annual General Meeting in The Stable, Weston-super-Mare, on 5 October as a part of a weekend of commemorative, educational and social activities. IBMT Archivist and historian Alan Lloyd gave a presentation on the International Brigade volunteers from Somerset and on the IBMT's online database of volunteers. Nicola and Scott McKenna, daughter […]
My name is Erald Pashaj, from Tirana, Albania and I am the grandson of Iljaz Pashaj, (1908-1992), an ex-member of Garibaldi Battalion. While navigating the internet about the new Democratic Memory Law in Spain, I found your organisation and I was astonished by the great work that you are doing as IBMT to keep alive […]
Ali Zahid considers the involvement of Greek seafarers in the Spanish Civil War and describes how British veterans interceded on behalf of one of them, Nikos Karagiannis, who was interned by the British at the end of the Second World War as Greece was plunged into civil war. Growing up in a working class family […]
