February saw the annual commemorations organised by AABI, the Madrid-based Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales (Friends of the International Brigades), with events in Madrid, Tarrancón and Jarama. Below is a small selection of images from the events. To see more photos, go to the AABI website. On Friday 21 February, supporters travelled to Tarranón […]
IBMT member Lin Rose Clark on her new book about her Brigader grandfather… Robert (now often known as Bob) Hilliard’s life seemed full of mystifying swerves and paradoxes. His nephew Stephen Hilliard, writing about him in 1984, raised a string of questions about the interaction between his staunchly socialist politics and his time as a […]
Eighty-eight years on, young and old pay homage to the sacrifices of British Brigaders, writes Robert Hargreaves… Uniforms neatly pressed, boots polished, and standing perfectly to attention, Tom Wintringham, commanding officer of the British Battalion at the Battle of Jarama, a stickler for discipline, would have been proud of them. The Lost Sons of Albion, […]
IBMT Chair Jim Jump reports… The ‘Echoes of Spain’ mosaic in London’s Portobello Road now has two plaques explaining the significance and origins of the memorial. Located under the Westway flyover in the heart of the famous street market, the mural depicts the links between the Spanish Civil War and the Notting Hill area of […]
Words spoken by IBMT Chair Jim Jump at the unveiling of the memorial to the Doncaster International Brigade volunteers on 12 February… First a big thank-you to Councillor David Shaw, former councillor Tosh McDonald and everyone at Doncaster City Council who has made this excellent memorial possible. Eighty-eight years ago today, 12 February 1937, the […]
Pauline Fraser reports from the unveiling in Beeston, Nottinghamshire… A good fifty people braved the cold to gather outside Nan Green’s birthplace, on Sunday 9 February, for the dedication of a plaque to this former Secretary of the International Brigade Association, volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and peace activist. Flowers in the colours of […]
The International Brigade archives at the Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School (MML) are to be digitised and put online in a major project that will run for the next 10 years. This important step will improve access and preservation of this internationally significant resource on the Spanish Civil War. The London-based library will partner […]
With the 2025 Jarama commemorations fast approaching, we revisit Mike Arnott's article in the IBMT Newsletter from July 2013 about the unveiling of a plaque in Tarancón to remember the Scots killed at the Battle of Jarama. This year, supporters will especially remember the recently passed Allan Craig Jr, son of Brigader Allan Craig. In […]
In issue No.50 of ¡No Pasarán!, historian Mark Derby explored the short life of New Zealand International Brigader Griff Maclaurin, drawing on the 20-year-long correspondence between his sister and Gwen Davies, his friend at Cambridge University. Griff Maclaurin had been a brilliant mathematics student at Auckland University College in 1928-1931 and took up a postgraduate […]
The Spanish Ministry of Democratic Memory and a team of specialist archaeologists from ArqueoAntro have resumed the search to find a mass grave containing the remains of 451 International Brigaders in Montecarmelo, Madrid. The excavation site behind Fuencarral cemetery. The banner says, 'Excavations in search of Brigaders'. Photo: AABI. The excavations, which began in mid-January, […]
Cover: Bristol’s Red Notes Choir singing songs from the Spanish Civil War in Castle Park beneath the city’s memorial to the four Bristolians who died in Spain. Issue 1-2025 of the IBMT digital magazine, ¡No Pasaran!, has been emailed to all paid-up members. The first feature of this issue is David Grant's modern assessment of […]
Jim Jump on the Fife coalminer, illustrator, poet and International Brigader who was ‘small in stature, large in life’ … Born on 21 August 1912 in Denbeath, Fife, Hugh Smith Sloan was the son of Elizabeth and Richard Sloan, a pit sinker and miner. The eldest of five, from an early age he developed a […]
