International Brigade Memorial Trust
There was standing room only at IBMT events in Oxford over the weekend, where the Trust held its AGM at Ruskin College on Saturday 6 September.
Pictured below (top picture) is part of the audience at the Gladiator Club, where a fundraising benefit was held on the Saturday night towards a memorial to the 31 Oxfordshire volunteers, six of whom died in Spain.
Performers included the cast of the musical ‘¡No Pasarán!’ (pictured), along with Ran Kan Kan, John Christie and the Sea Green Singers.
Pictured bottom is a section of the audience at Oxford Town Hall on the Friday night to hear a panel of experts and local historians talk about the Oxfordshire International Brigaders and the considerable local impact of the Spanish Civil War. Speakers included Richard Baxell, Tom Buchanan, Colin Carritt, Hugh Purcell and Liz Woolley.
Apologies to all those who were turned away at both events because they were full to capacity.
Also oversubscribed were two radical history walking tours of Oxford conducted on Sunday by local historian Ciaran Walsh.
A book, titled ‘No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War’ (pictured), by Chris Farman, Valery Rose and Liz Woolley, and with an introduction by Tom Buchanan, is to be published by the IBMT to coincide with the unveiling of the memorial in Oxford. It is hoped that this will be before the end of the year, but is subject to planning permission.
At the AGM itself, the IBMT’s existing trustees and executive council (see list below) was re-elected for a further one-year term of office.
It was also agreed to hold the next AGM in Aberdeen on a Saturday in October 2015.
IBMT Trustees and Officers 2014/15:
Mike Arnott, Richard Baxell, Pauline Fraser, Mary Greening, Chris Hall, Charles Jepson (Treasurer), Hilary Jones, Jim Jump (Secretary), Dolores Long (Chair), Duncan Longstaff, Manus O’Riordan, Danny Payne, Marlene Sidaway (President), Richard Thorpe, Mick Whelan
Photos by Marshall Mateer
