Men and women from Gwent who fought Franco in Spain remembered on 80th anniversary of their return

The 1930s was a turbulent period for the European continent, especially as a new, dangerous ideology - fascism – had started to unravel the status quo.

And 80 years ago, more than 200 men and women, many of whom from Gwent, volunteered their services to the International Brigade and travelled to Spain to join the Republican Government during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.

Their motive was simple: To defend the country from falling into the grasp of Francisco Franco’s brutal and Fascist army.

While more than 150 returned home, at least 35 died during the brutal conflict.

And a newly published book - You Are Legend - tells the remarkable stories of men and women from Gwent who pledged their solidarity to the cause.

Author Graham Davies, a former education advisor and schools inspector, said: "The writing of this book resulted from a confluence of emotive experiences. They began with a mesmerising assault on the senses by Pablo Picasso's masterpiece Guernica, and were nurtured by the discovery, in the Burry Port Institute in Carmarthenshire, of a plaque commemorating the men from South Wales who were killed fighting against fascism in Spain. The outcome is a book which examines the phenomenon of the Welsh who volunteer to fight against the fascist coup, in 1936, against Spain’s democratically elected Republican Government.

"My book - You Are Legend - outlines the motives, values and actions of the volunteers from Wales, by exploring the social, cultural, religious and political context of Wales during the 1930s. It also provides a fascinating insight into who they were, their political backgrounds, and follows their journeys to Spain, their experiences in a series of key battles fought by the British Battalion, before documenting their deaths or safe return to Wales.

"When the Welsh volunteers returned home they were greeted in their communities as heroes, but many felt betrayed by the British Government and were at first unwilling to share their experiences. However, as time went on, plaques were erected, memoirs and biographies were written and historians began to carefully curate the individual pieces of this fascinating jigsaw, which I've assembled into one remarkable story of idealism and bravery."

The men and women from Gwent involved in the conflict came from a wide-range of backgrounds – including miners, trade unionists and other roles – but were nonetheless united in their cause.

Mr Davies documents the people from the region who served in Spain in his new book.

They included:

David Barrett, a labourer from Blackwood, who served in the conflict from February to September 1938. A member of Tredegar branch of the CPGB, and in the GMW union, Mr Barrett would later be taken prisoner at Calaceite along with a number of other Welsh volunteers when confronted by Italian tanks and is on the official prisoner list at San Pedro Concentration Camp.

Jim Brewer, who was from Rhymney and a miner, who served from May 1937 to December 1938.

Always very politically aware, Mr Brewer was a hunger marcher and a student of politics at Coleg Harlech and Ruskin College. In Spain he served in the anti-tank unit and was regarded as a good ‘comrade’ who did his work well, was hard working and a good example to other men. Later he suffered from the consequences of the shelling and became nervous and war weary. He was the standard bearer for the volunteer's final march through Barcelona.

Les Brickell, a miner from Tredegar, served from August 1937 to February 1939.

Commended for bravery when, under bombing and machine gun fire, he threw hand grenades at a fascist machine gun on the summit. He was wounded in August 1938, but re-joined the battalion in September 1938 and was one of those captured at one of the last battles, Corbera d’Ebre, in September 23 1938, and imprisoned at San Pedro Concentration Camp until February 5 1939.

Robert Cox, a miner from Tredegar, served from February to August 1937.

He was inspired by Aneurin Bevan to stand against fascist violence. As one of the older volunteers at 38, he served at Jarama and Brunete, before being repatriated with fatigue.

Ben Davies, a labourer from Cwmbran, served from January 1937 to April 1938.

He served for seven years in the South Wales Borderers as a rifleman and signaller, before becoming a quarryman. In Spain, Mr Davies was firstly deployed as a telephonist and runner at Battalion HQ – where he was wounded three times – and was hospitalised for a month at Elda hospital, Alicante, after suffering a wound at Jarama.

David R. Davies, an electrician from Crumlin, who served from February to October 1937.

A number of episodes of bravery are recorded about him in Mr Davies' files, before being recommended immediate repatriation on health grounds in September 1937.

William Nash, a miner from Nantyglo, took part in the conflict from February to March 1937.

Mr Nash served in South Africa in World War One and volunteered for the International Brigade – aged 58 – early in 1937. However, he was taken seriously ill at the front and soon returned home for health reasons and on account of his age.

Margaret Powell, a nurse and midwife from Monmouthshire, served from March 1937 to February 1939. Born at Cwm Farm, Llangenny, Ms Powell lived on a small Welsh hill farm. Having trained as a nurse and, after finishing midwifery training, she was accepted by the Spanish Medical Aid Committee and left for Spain in early 1937. She served as a frontline nurse in Aragon, Teruel and the Ebro and assisted in thousands of operations, often performed in the light from a cigarette lighter. Before her return she was interned in a French concentration camp.

Thora Silverthorne, from Abertillery, served from August 1936 to September 1937.

The daughter of a Bargoed miner who joined the Young Communist League at age of 16, Silverthorne had moved to England where she trained as a nurse at Oxford and gave medical assistance to the passing hunger marchers. After volunteering for Spain she was one of the first nurses to be sent with the British Medical Unit which pioneered the Brigade's first hospital in Granen, commandeered by cleaning up an old farm house. Ms Silverthorne also nursed in Huesca and other fronts, and sometimes worked up to 20 hours a day. She was admired for her kindness, sense of humour and regarded as "outstandingly competent" and a ''first class theatre nurse''.

And Edwin Williams, a seaman from Newport, served from February to December 1938.

Mr Williams wanted to return home in order to recruit more volunteers but was persuaded to remain for the duration of the war. He disappeared at Calaceite but does not seem to have been captured.

Despite the best intentions of the resistance Franco would emerge victorious.

His iron-rule over Spain would only be lifted upon his death in 1975 at the age of 82, where the country then developed into a parliamentary democracy.

You Are Legend is published in paperback by Welsh Academic Press for £19.99.