Description
Object description
British volunteer served with Tom Mann Centuria in Spain, 9/1936-10/1936; rifleman served with Thaelmann Bn, XII International Bde in Spain, 11/1936-12/1936
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Middlesbrough, GB, 1916-1935: influence of parents; opinion of education; books he would take to Spain in 1936; employment as clerk in Civil Service; literary influences and political outlook; story illustrating family poverty during 1920s; lack of reaction to General Strike, 5/1926; effects of First World War; influence of Methodism and becoming Sunday School teacher in 1935. Aspects of journey from GB to Spain and joining Republican forces in Barcelona, Spain, 7/1936-8/1936: reaction to conditions in north east; decision to go to Spain; fabrication of story to parents; preparations for journey; degree of political awareness; refusal of entry into Spain at Portbou; joining anti-Fascist militia in Barcelona; background to recruitment.
REEL 2 Continues: effects of time spent in Spain. Recollections of period as volunteer with Tom Mann Centuria in Barcelona, Spain, 9/1936-10/1936: recruitment to Spanish Communist Party; formation of unit, 9/1936; effect of meeting unit members; question of how Young Communist League travelled to Spain; impressions of the Ramblas; accommodation in vandalised convent; presence of journalist; opinion of working class organisation and public funerals; character of working class organisation in city and question of tipping waiters; role of women in militia; presence of assassination squads at night; question of signs of affluence in city and supplies; desire for action. Recollections of period as rifleman with Thaelmann Bn, XII International Bde in Spain, 11/1936-12/1936: joining International Bdes at Albacete; recruitment to Thaelmann Bn; training, uniforms and equipment; arrival of rifles; in action at Cerro de los Angeles, Madrid, 11/1936; wounding by sniper, 12/11/1936.
REEL 3 Continues: evacuation to and treatment at field hospital; inability to urinate; reaction to receiving pay and shopping for clothes in Barcelona; personal morale; hearing of death of comrades at Boadilla del Monte, 12/1936; action at Cerro de los Angeles near, Madrid, 11/1936; opinion of rifles and Germans in battalion; attitudes towards British volunteers; presence of political commissar; reaction to being in action; question of visiting Madrid; air attacks; opinion of medical staff; question of flying flags; receiving money and mail from GB. Aspects of period as member of Young Communist League, Communist Party of Great Britain in Middlesbrough in GB, 1937-1940: family reaction to his political outlook; work with Young Communist League; attitude of Civil Service employers to his time in Spain; attitude of British Army towards him as veteran of International Bdes during later military service; opinion of Hugh Thomas's book 'The Spanish Civil War' (1961) and George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' (1938).
REEL 4 Continues: Reflections on period with Tom Mann Centuria and Thaelmann Bn, XII International Bde in Spain, 9/1936-12/1936: question of relations between left-wing groups; question of priority of revolution or civil war; role of Anarchists in Barcelona; reads poem.
