Saturday 26 April saw the unveiling of the Newham International Brigades Memorial in the Old Spotted Dog ground of Clapton Community Football Club (212 Upton Lane, London E7 9NP). Kevin Blowe of Clapton CFC tells the story behind the memorial…

Since launching our International Brigades-inspired away kit in 2018, we have wanted to mark the debt of gratitude owed to those who volunteered to join the fight against fascism in Spain.

We are grateful for the many new friends we have made along the way and it gives us great pride that CCFC has been able to finance a significant memorial to those who aided the fight for the Spanish Republic between 1936 and 1939.

IBMT President Marlene Sidaway unveils the memorial featuring lines from the poem 'I Sing of my Comrades' by her late partner and International Brigader David Marshall, who was a long-time Newham resident.

In March 2019, the club had asked to site a memorial in West Ham Park, but our proposal was rejected by the City of London Corporation.

After securing the Old Spotted Dog Ground in 2020, the plan shifted to installing it inside our ground, but a combination of the ongoing pandemic and then the need to have the ground ready for men’s and women’s first team games meant further delays.

Now, after years of planning, the Newham International Brigades memorial is being unveiled today.

The significance of 26 April is also that it marked the anniversary of the ‘carpet bombing’ of the Basque town of Guernica by combined German, Italian and Spanish fascist forces, which became the subject of Picasso’s famous painting. This finally convinced the British government to allow refugee children to travel to Southampton and a number of these children later went on to become professional football players in England and Spain.

The club asked local firm Rodwell Memorials, based in Manor Park, to create the memorial in red granite, which was ordered in September 2024.

In February 2025, volunteers began work on the concrete base, which was laid by some of the team from Hackney Bumps, an outdoor skate park in Clapton that we previously worked with to raise funds for Gaza Sunbirds and Pal Gaza.

The memorial pays special tribute to those from the area around the Old Spotted Dog who made that journey, whether to take up arms or to tend to the wounded. 

With the help of the International Brigade Memorial Trust we have so far identified 16 volunteers. As well as changes in the boundaries and administration of the area means that our list may have some omissions.

Billy Bragg performing at the unveiling.

Newham was not created until 1965 and births before that would have been registered to the borough of West Ham. Volunteers born in the area may also have only been known by their last address before signing up.

If you do know of any further volunteers from the area then please let us know, or inform the IBMT on admin@international-brigades.org.uk. You can search for further volunteers in the IBMT database.

Fred Adams
1911-1994 
Transport & General Workers’ Union
Born in West Ham, Fred Adams was a builder’s labourer, who fought at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937. He received two thigh wounds and was repatriated on medical grounds after eight months in Spain.

Joseph Caleno
1912-1963
Communist Party
Originally a boot repairer by trade, Joe Caleno spent 13 months in Spain and was cited for bravery at the Battle of Brunete. After sustaining an injury, he was sent home. Though born in Leicester, in 1939 he was living and working in West Ham Lane, Stratford, as a shopkeeper and tobacconist.

Percy Cohen
1901-1974 
Transport & General Workers’ Union
Stratford-born Percy Cohen served in Spain for 18 months as an ambulance driver before being repatriated in August 1938. His occupation was given as a provision merchant.

Max Colin
1912-1997
Young Communist League
Born in Stepney, Max Colin lived in Rosebery Avenue, Newham. He was a driver and mechanic, and served in that capacity for 10 months in Spain. He was wounded at the Battle of Brunete in the summer of 1937.

Charles Cormack
1912-1938
Communist Party
Born in Forest Gate, where he lived at 28 Vanisittart Road, Charles Cormack was killed on 27 August 1938 in the Battle of the Ebro on his 26th birthday. He had been in Spain for five months. He worked as a driver before joining the International Brigades.

James Cormack
1910-1991
Communist Party
James was the brother of Charles Cormack and they arrived together in Spain in March 1938. Born in Lambeth, he worked as a coach painter and also lived at 28 Vanisittart Road. He was wounded in the Battle of the Ebro in August 1938, losing three fingers, and returned home four months later. After the war he lived in Field Road, Forest Gate.

Cecil Cranfield
1906-1976
Labour Party
A former lightweight amateur boxing champion, Cecil Cranfield was born in Camberwell and worked as a salesman. His address was given as 194 Romford Road, Forest Gate, when he joined the International Brigades. He was a machine-gunner in Spain, where he remained for eight months, and was wounded in January 1938 at the Battle of Teruel.

George Degude
1910-1937
Communist Party
Born in West Ham, George Degude lived at Newington Hall Villas, Church Street, Stoke Newington. He arrived in Spain in February 1937 and was an ambulance driver. He sustained a fatal head injury at the Battle of Brunete in July 1937 and died soon afterwards.

Edward Dickinson
1903-1937
Industrial Workers of the World
Born in Grimsby, Edward Dickinson was a salesman and gave an address at 13 Upton Lane, Forest Gate, though he had a wife and daughter in Melbourne, Australia. He arrived in Spain in December 1936 and was captured at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937 while second-in-command of the British Battalion’s machine-gun company. He was shot on 13 February 1937 after protesting over the shooting of a fellow prisoner.

Gerrard Doyle
1907-1970
Communist Party
Gerrard Doyle was born in Limerick and was a driver and moulder. He gave his address as 2 Vale Road, Forest Gate. He served in Spain for 17 months and was wounded in fighting at Jarama and at Brunete in February and July of 1937. In March of the following year he was captured at Calaceite and was held at the prisoner of war camp at San Pedro de Cardeña, near Burgos, until returning home in October 1938 in a prisoner exchange with Italian troops.

Thomas Duncombe
1913-1938
Communist Party, National Union of General & Municipal Workers
Born in West Ham, Thomas Duncombe had an address at 37 Rosher Road, Stratford, when he arrived in Spain in February 1938. He was a labourer and was listed as missing, presumed killed, at Gandesa on 3 April of that year.

Leslie Huson
1907-1938
Communist Party, Transport & General Workers’ Union
Metallurgist Leslie Huson, born in West Ham, emigrated to Canada when he was 18 but returned home and was living in Clerkenwell when he joined the International Brigades in February 1938. He survived for only two months, dying of pneumonia in hospital in Valls, Catalonia.

David Marshall
1916-2005
Young Communist League
Arriving in Spain in August 1936, David Marshall, a civil servant from Middlesbrough, was one of the first volunteers in Spain. He was wounded at Cerro de los Ángeles, near Madrid, and repatriated in January 1937. After service in the British Army, he became a carpenter with Joan Littlewood’s drama company at the Theatre Royal in Stratford. He lived at 37 Reginald Road, close to West Ham Park, where there is a memorial bench to him.

John O’Connor
1915-1999
Communist Party, National Union of Railwaymen
Steel fixer John O’Connor, born in Poplar and living at 269 Upton Lane, Forest Gate, arrived in Spain in February 1938 and served for 10 months in the International Brigades. At the Battle of the Ebro in the summer of that year he was a cartographer and lookout with the British Battalion.

Pat O’Mahoney
1890-?
Canadian-born Pat O’Mahoney was a veteran of the Great War and lived at 137 Geere Road, West Ham. He was a nurse/masseur and arrived in Spain in February 1937. He was wounded at the Battle of Jarama later that month and sent home in May.

Gordon Siebert
1910-1990
Labour Party
Gordon Siebert was a clerk, born in West Ham. He arrived in Spain in October 1937 and did not return home until the end of the Spanish Civil War in April 1939, having been imprisoned for disciplinary offences.

IBMT Chair Jim Jump (foreground, in blue shirt) reads out the names of the Newham volunteers.

Students from the East 15 Acting School sang songs from the Spanish Civil War.

A banner of Picasso's Guernica was on display for the unveiling ceremony. It was created by Daisy Price Fernández, whose father was executed by the fascists early in the Spanish Civil War.

More photos from the event here: