Bernard McKenna’s ashes were buried in Caspe, Aragón, on 15 November. Patricia Ure reports on the event, which was attended by six members of his family: children Peter, Neil, Nicki, Joss, grandson Scott, and son-in-law Robert.

The programme to remember Bernard McKenna began at Caspe’s International Brigades monument, inaugurated in 2018 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Caspe, in which the International Brigades took part. 

Members of Lower Aragón Association for Agitation and Propoaganda (ABAA), which organised the event, explained the strategic location of Caspe, the bombing suffered by the population, and the defence of the road that Franco's army wanted to cut off in order to reach the Mediterranean and divide the Republican zone in two. 

For the second part of the programme, we headed towards the town’s, cemetery where the remains of four unidentified internationals are buried, along with the ashes of Lincoln Battalion commissar Fred Lutz and his wife.

Bernard pictured in Spain, where he served as a signaller and infantryman in there British Battalion. In the Second World War he carried on the fight against fascism, joining the RAF and spending six and a half years in North Africa, the Middle East and Italy, fighting the forces of Hitler and Mussolini.

This is a place that is now honourably shared with the ashes of Bernard McKenna’s. A plaque dedicated to Bernard has been paid for by the family is placed on the wall alongside the others.

The ceremony was presented by Carlos Garcés, president of ABAA, followed by the reading of the words of IBMT Chair Jim Jump, read in English by memory activist and historian Alan Warren and translated into Spanish. 

Hew concluded: ‘The IBMT joins the McKenna family in remembering Bernard’s inspirational life. We vow to keep alive the memory and spirit of Bernard and all his comrades in the International Brigades.’

Neil McKenna spoke with great emotion about his father's experience in the war, fighting on the front line, wounded twice, and imprisoned in San Pedro de Cardeña after being captured at Caspe. 

Family, fiends and supporters at the International Brigade memorial outside Caspe, where the British Battalion was ambushed by Mussolini’s troops in March 1938.

He said his father had lived a long life, living until he was 92. ‘In his later years, Spain and the civil war loomed large in his thoughts. He believed that volunteering to fight in Spain was the single most important act of his entire life.’

He went on: ‘On many occasions he expressed a wish to move to Spain and to die in Spain. But because of his declining health, this never happened.

Grandson Scott Paynter and mother Nicola McKenna look on as the ground is prepared for the burial of the ashes at the cemetery in Caspe.

‘So today is also a day of celebration and of joy. For today, here in Caspe, in Aragón, where my father fought, was wounded and was eventually captured, Bernard has returned to the country he loved so much, and lies in rest and peace with other Brigadistas. He has come home.’

José Abenia, from the AABI (Spanish Friends of the International Brigades), read Neil's words in Spanish. The final contribution came from the British Consul General in Barcelona, Lloyd Milen, on behalf of the British government in honour of the International Brigades.

Lloyd Milen, the British Consul General in Barcelona, speaking at the ceremony.