Green, Nancy (Oral history)

British volunteer served as secretary and administrator with Spanish Medical Aid Committee in Spain, 7/1937-6/1938; served as secretary to chief medical officer of Medical Service, 35th Div, Spanish Republican Army in Spain, 7/1938-11/1938

REEL 1 Background in GB, 1904-1931: family; education; employment; joining Independent Labour Party in Stockport, 1929. Aspects of period as member of Communist Party of Great Britain in London, GB, 1931-1937: background to joining party, 1931; husband George Green's employment as musician; motherhood; party activities, 1931-1936 including demonstration against Daily Mail newspaper; George Green's decision to go and journey to Spain, 7/1937; accepting offer to go to Spain as administrator, 1937; provision for her children in GB. Recollections of period as secretary and administrator with Spanish Medical Aid Committee in Spain, 7/1937-6/1938: opinion of Harry Fraser; background to husband George Green's confinement to hospital; impressions of Catalonia; description of convalescent hospital at Valdeganga; medical administration; attempts to improve hospital dances; conditions at hospital in monastery; story of making way to France aboard HMS Sussex with aid of Royal Navy and return to Spain. Recollections of period as secretary to chief medical officer of Medical Service, 35th Div, Spanish Republican Army in Spain, 7/1938-11/1938: duties; attempts to improve morale. REEL 2 Continues: rations; story of reaction to sight of gas masks on return to GB, 1938; last contact with husband; reaction to George Green's death in action, 22/9/1938; opinion of British Medical Aid Unit administration; question of Spanish attitude towards vehicles; improvisation of equipment and resources; story illustrating Spanish attitudes towards women; arranging fiesta with villagers in La Bisbal de Falset, 20/7/1938; crossing River Ebro, 24/7/1938; stories illustrating role of women in Spain; conditions in Barcelona, 9/1938; searching for missing husband in hospitals in Barcelona and Vic, 9/1938. REEL 3 Continues: opinion of Spanish Medical Aid Committee administrators; character of British nurses; need to persuade Australian and New Zealand nursing sisters to remove their religious styled hats; question of political attitudes among civilian population; question of degree of social revolution in Republican Spain; story illustrating religious attitudes in Spain; topics of discussion; attitudes and lifestyles of Spanish women; giving party for village children. Aspects of period escorting Spanish refugees during voyage to Mexico, 1939: duties escorting refugees; reception for refugees in Puerto Rico. REEL 4 Continues: facilities for refugees in Mexico; reaction of Mexican civilians towards Spanish refugees; return to GB, 7/1939. Aspects of period as civilian in GB and People's Republic of China, 1939-1976: appointment as secretary of International Brigade Association, 1942; work as language teacher in People's Republic of China, 1953-1960; support for repatriation of International Bdes prisoners of war from Spain after end of conflict; continuation of aid to Spain during Second World War; legal aid and support for Republicans in Spain after 1939; organisation of dockers' boycott of Spanish shipping during 1970s; attempt to stop execution of last political prisoner by Nationalist regime.