Betty Birch, who died on 16 August 2024 at the age of 94, was a leading anti-Franco activist during the postwar years and was a founder member of the IBMT.

She campaigned on behalf of Spanish political prisoners and was the first chair of the Aid to Spanish Youth Committee.

She was born Betty Andrew in Rothwell, Northamptonshire. Her father was a frequently unemployed boot and shoe worker and her mother came from a Forest of Dean mining family. She won scholarships first to Kettering High School for Girls and in 1948 to study history at Bristol University.

After graduation she moved to London and quickly became involved in the formation of Aid to Spanish Youth Committee, which campaigned on behalf of young political prisoners in Franco’s jails.

Betty Birch picketing the Spanish embassy in London in 1952 with International Brigade veteran Alec Digges (centre) and Chris Birch.

With husband Chris Birch, she was often to be seen in demonstrations against Franco’s brutal dictatorship.

She had met Chris at university, where both were active members of the Communist Party.

They married in 1950. At their wedding, according to her entry in the online Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies (https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2013/10/15/birch-betty), everyone sang to the tune of ‘God Save the King’:
God bless our native land!
May heaven’s protecting hand
Still guard her shore.
May peace her laws defend,
Foe be transformed to friend
And Britain’s power depend
On war no more.

As a teacher, Betty became one of the deputy heads of the Hurlingham and Chelsea School (now the Hurlingham Academy).

Betty Birch at the Stop the War demonstration in London in February 2003.