Welsh Volunteers
" Fascism can only lead the World to the ballet of death and destruction and to barbarism " Tom Jones
Thomas Jones: born 13/10/1908, Lancashire. Moved to Rhosllanerchrugog, Denbigshire as a boy. Enlistment Address; 56 Chapel Street, Wrexham. CPGB (1931) Occupation: Miner. Left England for Spain 03/04/1937. Arrived in Spain 13/5/1937. Enlisted in Battalion; 16/5/1937. Member of the anti-tank battery. Reported killed in error 17/9/1938. He was badly injured in the right arm at the Ebro and was taken prisoner in September 1938. 11/03/1939 reported as a prisoner at San Pedro de Cardena. Released in March 1940 only after the British government agreed to sign a trade agreement that was, according to some, worth £2,000,000. Probably the last British Brigader to see Major Frank Ryan alive. Arrived in London 2/4/1940 along with Scotsman Frank Cameron. Always know as "Tom Spain" thereafter. died 1990
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Alun Menai Williams: born at Gilfach Goch, a south Wales mining town in the Rhondda Valley on 2/2/1913. RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corp) Veteran of Cable Street (October 4th 1936) Single. Age: 25. Enlistment Address: 34 Amos Hill, Penycraig, Rhondda, South Wales. CPGB (1927) Alun was on the ship the "City of Barcelona" which was torpedoed off the Spanish coast by an Italian submarine. (30/5/1937) He was rescued by fishermen and went on to serve as a Medic in Spain with the Thaelmann, George Washington, Garibaldi, Lincoln and British Battalions (No.4 Company) Wounded in the leg at Brunete while attending to the seriously wounded George Nathan. Served as a member of the ground staff for the RAF during WW2. died 2/7/2006
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Thomas William Paynter: born: 6/12/1903, Whitchurch near Cardiff. Occupation: Collier at Coedely Colliery. CPGB (1929) SWMF. NUWM. Studied at the Lenin School in Moscow. Arrived in Spain: 24/4/1937. Political Commissar. Oversaw the Battalion's interests at the the Brigade's Headquarters at Albacete. Representative of Central Committee of the Communist Party. Returned 03/11/1937. (PF. 41265)
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George Ernest Fretwell: Penygroes, North Wales. Born: 1911. Unemployed. Sergeant in the Territorials. Killed on 12/2/1937 during the British Battalion's first day of action in the Jarama Valley.
www.nantlle.com/history-pen-y-groes-george-fretwell.htm My thanks to Mr Arwyn Fretwell. |
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Suggested reading:
'From Aberdare to Albacete, A Welsh International Brigader's Memoirs of his Life' author Edwin Greening.
'Miners against Fascism, Wales and the Spanish Civil War ' author Hywel Francis
'From Aberdare to Albacete, A Welsh International Brigader's Memoirs of his Life' author Edwin Greening.
'Miners against Fascism, Wales and the Spanish Civil War ' author Hywel Francis