IBMT member Robert Hargreaves reports on the campaign for a new memorial in North West England …

Proud Salford, for so long overshadowed by the adjacent city of Manchester, is fired up to reclaim its place in the history of the British Battalion and the Spanish Civil War.

At least 30 men and women from greater Salford served in the International Brigades. Ten did not return, and many were wounded. Now, North West IBMT stalwart Barrie Eckford is determined to mark their place in history with a new memorial that will remind future generations of the sacrifices made by brave volunteer Salfordians.

Barrie Eckford addresses the Salford Histories Festival.

Barrie, a retired UNITE the Union member, has teamed up with Salford councillor and UNITE official Jack Youd to spearhead a fund-raising campaign for the memorial. The key element in the campaign is a social media crowdfunding appeal under the auspices of Salford City Council. Including a generous £1,000 donation from the UNITE service branch, the crowdfund has already raised almost £2,000. Moreover, with Jack’s support, Salford’s Mayoral Fund has undertaken to match the donations made from other sources.

Addressing an enthusiastic meeting of Salfordians in the council chamber, as part of the city’s Histories Festival, Barrie spoke of the special contribution Salford citizens made to the defence of the beleaguered Spanish Republic in the face of Franco’s military onslaught on democracy. Said Barrie: 'The people of Salford were politically aware. They had borne deprivation and unemployment with magnificent courage and had witnessed the threat of fascism as Mosley’s blackshirts stalked their streets. When Franco launched his attack on the democratically elected government of Spain, these men and women told themselves: we will fight!'

Councillor Jack Youd.

In turn, Cllr Youd explained his dedication to the cause of a memorial: 'I have always been an anti-fascist. My concerns brought me into contact with the IBMT. It goes without saying that I am a passionate Salfordian, and looking back at the history of our city, I feel that the Brigaders helped to give us our unique identity.'

Jack’s wife, Charlotte, also a councillor, echoed these sentiments. 'Yes, it’s about our history and identity, and that means our children’s future as well.' She added that the city remembers with pride not only the Salford Brigaders but also its citizens who made huge sacrifices to contribute to Spanish Aid and food ships, as well as those who welcomed and cared for many of the Basque children evacuated from Spain at the height of the war.

Supporting Barrie Eckford (centre), IBMT volunteers, from left to right, Rob Hargreaves, Stuart Walsh, Stephanie Turner and Ben Perry.

Another key contributor to the project is Ben Perry, a post-graduate research student at York University whose research has retrieved wide-ranging facts about individual Brigaders. “The IBMT Volunteer database has been invaluable’, said Ben, who helped man the IBMT stall at the festival. 

Stuart Walsh (left) and Barrie Eckford (right) with Salford Deputy Mayor, Cllr Heather Fletcher.

The campaign for a Salford memorial, envisaged as an obelisk bearing the names of the city’s volunteers, in the square adjacent to the Working Class Memorial Library (WCML), has the support of the mayor, Cllr Paul Dennett, Salford Trades Union Council, numerous community groups such as the Ordsall Community and Arts Centre, and the WCML itself.

Donations to the crowdfund can be made via the crowdfunding campaign.

IBMT Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott shares the story behind an unusual memorial in Carbeth, Scotland …

Carbeth is a small hamlet in the beautiful rural hills and woodlands of Stirlingshire, nine miles north of the former shipbuilding town of Clydebank. The history of the Carbeth Hutters begins when returning soldiers from the First World War were granted camping rights by the local landowner; Allan Barns Graham.

The area was noted as a magnet for the industrial working class living in the industrial conurbations along the Clyde and seeking escape and recreation within the river’s rural hinterland. The more robust hut structures developed from the seasonal tented camping sites.

The Hutters are a group, and a philosophy, which grew out of the First World War’s aftermath and the 'camping and trekking' explosion of the 1920s and 30s. The huts, associated camps and other parts of the area have strong links with the Clarion and the wider Labour movement.

Indeed, Rose Kerrigan, wife of leading International Brigade volunteer Peter, organised a camp there providing ante-natal classes for expectant mothers from these working-class communities in the 30s.

The Clarion Camp, with Clarion Hut, at Carbeth.

Having been aware for many years of Carbeth and its labour movement links, and keen to try and pin down rumoured links to the International Brigaders, I struck up an email conversation with Tom McKendrick, a Board member of the Carbeth Hutters Community Company. He has been incredibly helpful in both confirming several links to the Brigaders and in initiating a dialogue within the wider Carbeth Hutter community to hopefully help us pin down more detailed information and handed-down recollections.

He was familiar with the story that the camp and its surroundings had been used as an ad hoc training area for potential Brigaders, ideal for the purpose with varieties of terrain (forests, hillsides and open ground) and well away from the sight of unsympathetic authorities.

Evidence has also come down from Bob Grieve, who was a veteran attendee at the famous Craigallian Fire, a campfire site by Carbeth. His fellow ‘fire sitters’ were industrial workers and the unemployed and the talk was of Socialism and Communism. Grieve and others were aware that a number of those who fought in Spain had been fire-sitters at Craigallian.

His sons, Willie and Iain, recalled their father’s anecdote that returning Spanish Civil War veterans brought a different edge to the camping: He claimed a number kept weapons to hunt deer on the slopes of Ben Lomond and that the occasional exchange of shots with local gamekeepers was not unknown. The same website also mentions David McConnell, a fire sitter from Glasgow, who volunteered for Spain. Due to a hitherto undetected heart problem caused by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, he failed the medical but was nevertheless accepted, allegedly due to the intercession of a family friend: Harry Pollitt, Communist Party General Secretary.

But McConnell never made it. He was arrested by French police as he was crossing the Pyrenees and repatriated. British Secret Service files do indeed record him leaving the UK on a ferry in March 1938 but returning three days later.

Tom has also confirmed the story of a 'farewell weekend' at Carbeth, when girlfriends and comrades gathered to say goodbye to those who were about to depart for Spain. He has shared the following photographs, the first of which was taken at that event and another showing a group in uniform, taken in Spain, which shares some faces with the first.

Most importantly. he has also been able to confirm three names of Brigaders associated with Carbeth, which we have been able to link to biographies on the IBMT website: Thomas Flynn from Glasgow, who was killed at Chimorra in April 1937, Andrew Smith from Clydebank and Joseph Harkins, also from Clydebank, who fell at Gandesa in July 1938. (Tom had a fourth name; James Harkins, Joseph’s brother, but we haven’t been able to confirm his being in Spain.)

Following the deaths in Spain, a tree was planted by the family of one of the fallen and was formally designated as The Soldiers Tree. It survives, is still remembered by this name today and is located at 55°58’53”N, 4°21’42”W, within the Carbeth Hut site.

The Soldiers Tree today.

The story of the tree makes it possibly the oldest UK memorial to the fallen of the International Brigade, certainly the oldest in Scotland, and we have agreed to work with the Carbeth Hutters Community Company to supplement it with a formal, interpretative memorial. It has also been added to the IBMT’s official database of UK memorials.

Sources:
Tom McKendrick
Carbeth Hutters
Friends of Craigallian Fire

Andy Jones reports from the annual No Pasarán Memorial Committee North Lanarkshire commemoration …

The No Pasarán Memorial Committee of North Lanarkshire held its annual memorial on Sunday 28 July in the Duchess of Hamilton Park Motherwell. A large crowd attended the event.

Committee members Frankie McGuinness Jim Baxter, John Milligan, Brian Molloy and Andy Jones.

Andy Jones of the committee explained that the memorial was primarily erected to remember the 11 brave individuals who left North Lanarkshire as part of the International Brigades to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War, some giving their lives in the ultimate sacrifice.

Each year, we also always remember all who fought with the International Brigades as well as those affected by fascism.

The main speaker was Mike Arnott of the IBMT, with music by Paul Sheridan. There was also a reading of the poem 'Graves of Spain' and the from the roll of honour. The service ended with a minute's silence and the laying of wreaths.

After the event in the park, a social was held in The Railway Tavern. 

Speaker Mike Arnott (in front of the banner), Paul Sheridan singing 'These Hands' and Andy Jones (right) of the committee.