Remembered: the 160 men from Merseyside who fought in the Spanish Civil War

Jul 12 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

They died young for their ideals. Now, 70 years on, the bravery of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War is to be commemorated in Liverpool. David Charters reports

MOST were poor. A few were rich. All were brave, all were passionate, all were young. Too young to know their own minds, some old-timers said. But there was no stopping them.

They believed in a new world order, where ideas would have the freedom to grow and honest work would be rewarded with decent pay, so that men and women could live in dignity.

Their faith was strong.

Throughout history, good people have offered themselves to their countries in times of trouble.

But these people offered themselves to another country and that country accepted their sacrifices to a cause, still revered by liberals and left-wingers, as one of the few moments in history when conscience was placed before self-interest.

Among them were 160 men from Merseyside. It is thought that more than 30 of them died. Twenty-seven have been traced and their names were inscribed on a plaque of honour in 1985.

It will be at the centre of remembrance to mark the 70th anniversary of the International Brigades being “stood down” in the Spanish Civil War, regarded by historians as the terrible prelude to World War II.

Leading the commemorations on September 3 will be a month-long exhibition of paintings, photographs, poems, banners, flags and memorabilia at the People’s Centre, on Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler sent men, planes and other weapons to bolster Francisco Franco, the Fascist controlling the Nationalist forces trying to remove the democratically-elected Republicans, who were supported by left-wingers and anarchists from across Europe and America.

It was a time of deep political convictions, more powerfully expressed than anything you would hear today. In Britain, many working-class thinkers and trade unionists, who had witnessed the hunger marches and appalling working conditions in our factories, docks, shipyards and pits were sympathetic to the ideals of the Spanish Republic.

Among them were writers and intellectuals, including George Orwell and Stephen Spender.

But the thinking was not all one way.

Some Western democracies saw Franco as a bulwark, which could prevent Spain falling under the dreaded influence of the Soviet Union. One correspondent to the Daily Post wrote that the war was, “the fight of Catholic Spain, rich and poor, against the paganism instilled by the Soviet Union”.

Frank Proctor didn’t see it like that. He lived with his family on Faraday Street, Anfield. As a teenager, he had joined the Territorial Army, winning the King’s Prize Medal for shooting.

But unemployment had fanned his Communist sympathies and he quit a Ministry of Labour scheme in a steelworks to enlist with the International Brigades, leaving for Spain without telling his mother.