Author Chris Hall previews his new book about the volunteers at home and in Spain…

Ninety years ago, a civil war broke out in a then little-known country. For thousands of British, Irish and Commonwealth people, the Spanish Civil War was their main focus for three years.

Over 2,500 ‘British’ (including Irish and Commonwealth) men and women fought in the International Brigades or served in the medical services of the Spanish Republic. Over 500 volunteers were to die in Spain.

Other ‘British’ volunteers served as mercenary pilots and in the revolutionary militias; some even served on the side of the rebel forces.

At home, thousands participated in ‘Spanish Aid’ activities, raising funds for food ships and medical supplies for Republican Spain. During the civil war, 4,000 Basque refugee children were supported by public donations. Picasso’s Guernica painting toured England to raise funds.

The cover of Chris Hall's new book, which will be published on 30 January.

My new book, ‘British Volunteers and the Spanish Civil War: “The Passionate Cause”, 1936-39’, is the story of these ordinary men and women, told in their own words, reflecting the whole gamut of emotions from ecstasy to despair.

Many volunteers went on to fight in the Second World War, and some became leading figures in postwar Britain. But for many volunteers, the Spanish Civil War was the ‘passionate cause’ and the outstanding episode of their lives. This is their story.’

The book concentrates as much as possible on the experiences of the volunteers told in their own words. The usual suspects appear in the book: Sam Wild, Fred Copeman, Jack Jones, Frank Ryan and George Orwell. You will also find some you may not have come across, such as John Loverseed, Jane Orme, Miriam and Maurice Clyne, Roland Penrose and Mary Elmes, to name just a few.

There are five sections. The first looks at the background to the Spanish Civil War, including what motivated people to volunteer and the journey to Spain. The next covers other military units and includes mercenary pilots, revolutionary volunteers, fascist fighters and men who served alongside Orwell.

The third and fourth sections look at the British Battalion of the International Brigade and humanitarian aid. In the closing section, we hear about the return of the volunteers and their involvement in the Second World War.

At the end of each chapter is a short biography of a volunteer or a married couple who both have a connection with the civil war. The book ends by examining how the volunteers are remembered today.

Several members of the IBMT sent me information about their relatives as well as rarely seen photographs, some of which appear in the book and on the front cover. Many thanks again to all who assisted me.

Chris Hall speaking at an event in North West England.

In my previous books, I have interviewed International Brigade veterans Maurice Levine, Bernard McKenna and Dave Goodman, as well as Stafford Cottman, a lifelong friend of Orwell.

I am perhaps most proud of this, my seventh book, because it covers all types of volunteering in the Spanish Civil War, from rattling a tin to risking – and sometimes losing – one’s life in battle.

Readers will find information and stories with which they are familiar; they will also discover something new about previously unknown men and women who resisted fascism in any way they could.

In its own small way, this book serves to bring their stories to light. By purchasing the book, you will learn more about these remarkable people, and, with royalties going to the IBMT, you will be supporting the Trust.

I dedicate this book to all those unknown volunteers who supported the Spanish Republic.

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‘British Volunteers and the Spanish Civil War: “The Passionate Cause”, 1936-39’ by Chris Hall (Pen & Sword History) is published on 30 January 2026. Pre-order the book now.

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 Church of Ireland priest. Why, in 1930, had he returned to Ireland and entered the priesthood, only to abandon both a few years later? How had this son of a loyalist, conservatively minded family of Killarney factory owners ended up on the side of workers’ struggles and the anti-fascist cause? Hilliard’s humour and passionate commitment had always charmed those who knew him – yet a cloud of sorrow and anger mingled with the esteem in which he was held. My mother could never understand how her loving, playful father had brought himself to leave his children.

I first learned that I had a grandfather who’d been killed in the Spanish Civil War as a young child. My mother explained to me one evening that he was shot in battle, that he had died a few days later and that he’d been fighting to defend the elected government of Spain. She spoke of him as a hero, yet what stayed with me from that first conversation was her unresolved grief. As I grew older, I discovered that admiration and grief were only two of the many strong emotions my grandfather had inspired.

The cover of 'Swift Blaze of Fire' by Lin Rose Clark.

I didn’t want to write a hagiography – Hilliard was no saint, and this is very much a warts-and-all account. But I did want to pick up the clues he left about his life and beliefs, not only because he was an absorbing character but also because the cause for which he risked and lost his life could hardly be more pressing. Hilliard said in his last postcard to his family: 'Unless fascism is beaten in Spain and in the world it means war and hell for our kids'. Since I completed this book the resurgence of fascism and the need to oppose it has gained a more dreadful urgency with every day that passes.

I began writing this book because I wanted to get to the bottom of all these questions. I soon realised that Hilliard’s story only makes sense if viewed through the lens of the struggles of his times. This is the story of a schoolboy lying in his school dormitory in Cork, a city rocked by strikes and massive street demonstrations, hearing gunfire, screams, street battles – awake perhaps one memorable night in 1917 to hear the IRA open up the school Officer Training Corp’s armoury and steal its weapons. It’s the story of an eloquent young anti-Treaty classics student who turned to boxing during the Irish Civil War, ending up as one of Ireland's first-ever Olympians. Among much else, it tells how he was influenced by his wife’s activism in the cause of the rebel Poplar councillors, by workers’ defeats in the 1920s, by their victories during the Belfast outdoor Relief Workers’ strikes and by the unity shown in the antifascist mobilisations of 1930s London. And of course, this book tells the story of how Hilliard came to fight in Spain.

Singer Christy Moore, in the song Viva La Quinta Brigada, begins his list of fallen Irish brigadistas with Hilliard and ex-Christian Brother Eamon McGrotty, who fought with the Lincoln Battalion, to emphasise the cross-sectarian nature of antifascist struggle. The antifascists who stood firm at Cable Street knew that migrant communities, Jews, non-Jews, communists and other left groups had to stand together. We need this class unity as much today as we did in the 1930s. The best way to celebrate Robert Hilliard and those he fought with in Spain is to stand together against the far right now.

Author and Robert Hilliard's granddaughter Lin Rose Clark.

'Swift Blaze of Fire' by Lin Rose Clark will be published by the Lilliput Press on 3 April 2025 and is available to pre-order now.