Cambridge University Communist Society
Volunteers for Liberty Cambridge contribution to the International Brigades
Raise The Banner Of Freedom Up To 20 Students And Citizens Of Cambridge Went To Serve In The International Brigade And In The IB Medical Units. Julian Bell / King's College/ Killed 17 July 1937, Brunete Lorrimer Birch / Killed December 1936, Boadilla Stephen Clark / Philosophy / King’s College John Cornford / Trinity College/ Killed 28 December 1936, Lopera Malcolm Dunbar / Economics / Trinity / Was One Of The Apostles Alonso (Lon) Elliott Ted Fletcher / ILP Volunteer And Later A Labour MP David Haden Guest / 1st In Mathematics With Honours/ Trinity / Killed July 1938, Gandesa
Ivor Rae Hickman / Christ’s / Killed 23 September 1938, Sierra Caballs Bernard Knox / Classics / St John’s Griffin Maclaurin / Mathematics / St John’s / Killed 9 November 1936, Casa De Campo Tony McLean / Was President Of Local CP In 1932 Inver Marlow (aka John Scott) / Killed 23 February 1937, Jarama Henry Carl Hesketh Pearson / Died Of Wounds In Hospital August 1938 Ronald Rolph Stuart Bell / Kings /(SMAC) Killed Brunete July 1937 Reginald Saxton / Medical Unit Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit / Medical Unit Miles Tomalin Alex Tudor Hart / Served In Field Operating Theatre Sinclair Loutit / Medical Unit/ Doctor Reg Saxton /Sydney College/ Doctor In Medical Unit Specialising In Blood Transfusion
“ Where, in the fields of Huesca, the full moon Throws shadows clear as daylight’s, soon The innocence of this quiet plain Will fade in sweat and blood, in pain, As our decisive hold is lost or won... England is silent under the same moon, From Clydeside to the gutted pits of Wales, The innocent mask conceals that soon Here, too, our freedom’s swaying in the scales. O understand before too late Freedom was never held without a fight.” Written in Spain by John Cornford 2 September 1936
Volunteers For
Liberty Extract From The Communist Party Anniversary History Booklet 90 Years In Struggle For The Working Class And Humanity “In mid-1935, the 7th world congress of the Communist International had elaborated its call for a united working class front of Communists and social democrats at the core of a broad people's front, to rebuff the fascist tide. That fascism led directly to war had
already been shown in 1931, when Japan attacked China, and in 1935 when Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia). In 1936, German and Italian military forces intervened to assist General Franco's revolt against the democratically elected socialist and republican government of Spain. This struggle became the focal point of a worldwide campaign against fascism. Millions of people in Britain rallied in solidarity with the Spanish Republic, while Tory and right-wing Labour leaders adopted the shameful policy of 'non-intervention'. For Britain's Communists, the Spanish cause spawned tenacity and sacrifice on the scale of the General Strike. By the end of December 1936, the Young Communist League had filled the first of 29 food ships. Communist women's leader Isabel Brown was one of many outstanding campaigners, stirring the hearts of open-air crowds with her appeals on behalf of Medical Aid for Spain. The spirit of Spain also helped produce the biggest vote so far, at the 1936 Labour Party conference, for Communist affiliation. More than one-quarter of the votes were cast in favour, including those of the miners, engineers, train drivers and furniture makers. This, in turn, inspired a Unity Campaign from January 1937, launched after talks between the Communist Party, the Socialist League (in which Labour MPs Stafford Cripps and Aneurin Bevan were prominent) and the Independent Labour Party (headed by Fenner Brockway and James Maxton). Large and enthusiastic meetings took place throughout Britain. The campaign drew in the Left Book Club, established in 1936 and soon boasting a network of 1,500 local discussion
groups. Its growth reflected the renewed interest in the international situation and in Marxist ideas. In promoting a 'Popular Front' of anti-fascist forces in Britain, Harry Pollitt pointed out that—unlike in France —it would be overwhelmingly working class in composition: 'Here the decisive majority of the population are industrial workers, the most class conscious are already organised industrially and politically. Our first job is to bring about unity within our Labour Movement'. It is a self-serving myth peddled by ultra-left antiCommunists that the CP in Britain, or in France for that matter, abandoned principled positions in order to chase after middle class allies for the People's Front. Meanwhile, in the north and west of London, engineering workers, led by communists were working unpaid shifts to produce gun mountings which could be attached to the motorbike and side car units being paid for by funds raised in working class communities and shipped to Spain. But Communists were keen to demonstrate that socialist and Communist ideas stood in the progressive traditions of their own country. AL Morton broke new ground with A People's History of England and the Communist Party history group was founded to counter bourgeois approaches and analyses to history. Led by Communists, the Unity Theatre movement and the Workers' Music Association expressed the class struggle in cultural forms. Eminent scientists such as JD Bernal and JBS Haldane applied Marxism in their specialist fields, popularising science in the process. Thousands of people flocked to Communist-initiated pageants in London, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool
and—sponsored by the South Wales Miners Federation and the Labour Research Department—across south Wales which celebrated working class and progressive history, linking it to the 'Popular Front' and the struggle in Spain. A theatrical spectacle with 3,000 performers, commissioned by the Cooperative movement and devised by Communists composer Alan Bush, filmmaker Montagu Slater and director Andre van Gyseghem, filled Wembley Stadium with 78,000 spectators. But by far the most heroic aspect of the Spanish crusade was the formation of International Brigades to go and fight fascism. Felicia Brown had been the first Communist from Britain to join a militia in defence of the Spanish Republic. She died on the Aragon front in August 1936. London clothing workers Nat Cohen and Sam Masters set up the Tom Mann Centuria. Beginning with only a dozen British volunteers, it grew rapidly with the direct assistance of CP general secretary Harry Pollitt. In October, Spanish prime minister Caballero agreed that the Communist International could raise International Brigades to come and defend democracy. An international recruiting centre was set up in Paris and a training base at Albacete in Spain. Around 2,200 volunteers went from England, Scotland and Wales to fight Franco and the fascists. There can be no exact figure because the Tory government threatened to use the 1875 Foreign Enlistment Act against 'illegal' volunteers. Keeping records and lists of names was difficult and dangerous. However, no-passport weekend trips to Paris provided a way around the authorities for those whose ultimate destination was Spain. In France, active support from
Communists, workers and peasants opened the paths over the Pyrenees. Volunteers for the British Battalion came from all walks of life, although the great majority were from the industrial areas. They were accustomed to the discipline of work in the factories and pits. From their unions they had learnt the value of organisation, democracy and solidarity. The commissar for English-speaking volunteers in the battalion, Communist Peter Kerrigan, set out the standards expected of volunteers: 'All recruits must understand they are expected to serve. Tell them: this is a war and many will be killed. This should be put brutally, with a close examination of their hatred of fascism'. Many volunteers already knew how to exercise leadership and take action in working class organisations. They understood the importance of setting an example and leading from the front when necessary. They were united in their aims and prepared to fight for them. The International Brigades provided a shock force while the republican government recruited and trained its own armed forces. The Spanish people knew they were not fighting alone. In Britain, Communists accounted for about half of the Brigade volunteers and the 533 of them killed in action. Party members who served in Spain included Bert Ramelson, Christopher Caudwell, Len Crome, Lou Kenton, Bill Alexander, David Marshall, Ralph Fox and John Cornford. Among the many women in medical units were Communists Thora Silverthorne, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Mary Valentine Ackland. Soon after her return, Silverthorne became the founding General Secretary of Britain's first independent trade union for nurses.
In September 1938, Juan Negrin, head of the Republican government, announced that the International Brigades would be unilaterally withdrawn from Spain for diplomatic reasons. However, General Franco failed to reciprocate and German and Italian forces remained, continuing their brutal suppression of those standing by the legitimate, elected government of Spain. Before leaving for home, Sam Wild, commander of the British Battalion, declared: 'The British Battalion is prepared to carry on the work begun here to see to it that our 500 comrades who sleep for ever beneath Spanish soil shall serve as an example to the entire British people in the struggle against fascism'. In October, the International Brigades began to depart, the words of Dolores Ibarruri ('La Pasionaria') ringing in their ears: 'You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend'. The Republican government fell to Franco the following year, although Spain's Communists fought to the bitter end. As fascist aggression was advancing in China, Austria and Spain, Britain's Communists and their allies worked strenuously to build a 'people's front' powerful enough to force the Chamberlain Tory government to adopt a policy of collective security in defence of peace. But the ruling class traitors would not budge from their determination to appease Hitler, hoping that Nazi Germany would turn its fire eastwards towards the Soviet Union—and away from the British Empire. The Daily Worker and Claud Cockburn's journal The Week
exposed the nest of Nazi sympathisers—leading financiers, industrialists, government ministers, military chiefs and newspaper editors—who plotted at the Cliveden mansion of Lord and Lady Astor. The Party's 15th congress took place in September 1938, as Prime Minister Chamberlain was scuttling back and forth to settle the fate of Czechoslovakia with Hitler. Palme Dutt and Communist MP Willie Gallacher warned the congress that Chamberlain was preparing to betray Czechoslovakia and therefore to betray peace, rather than form an anti-fascist alliance with the Soviet Union. Their assessment was proved right when less than a fortnight later Chamberlain returned with the Munich Agreement.”
Some of those who served GRIFF CAMPBELL Griffith Campbell MacLaurin was a New Zealander who became a Communist in Britain and died fighting in Spain in 1936. At Auckland University College he specialised in mathematics, winning the Sir George Grey Scholarship, which took him to Cambridge University. His was a family of talents; Kenneth instilled in the young Griff his own love of history, whilst his mother, Gwladys, taught him French. His uncle, James Scott MacLaurin, had been New Zealand's foremost analytical chemist. Another uncle, Richard Cockburn MacLaurin, was an outstanding
mathematician and legal scholar who also won a scholarship to Cambridge and was foundation professor of mathematics at Victoria University College in Wellington. R C MacLaurin became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1909 until his death in 1920. Under his presidency MIT was reformed into a world-class research and teaching institute. At Auckland University College MacLaurin took a BA degree in 1930, followed by a master's with first-class honours, the Cook Prize, and a post-graduate scholarship in arts. In 1932 he arrived at St John's College, Cambridge University, which his Uncle Richard had attended. His tutor instilled MacLaurin with a desire to travel and a visit to Germany in 1933, soon after the Nazis took power, profoundly changed his world view. MacLaurin spoke German and French and spent four months in Freiburg. His experience made him a staunch anti-fascist and the impact of the Depression on working people led him to question capitalist economics. He now made a thorough study of socialist theory and joined the very active Cambridge University Socialist Association, which was much influenced by Marxism. After graduation from Cambridge, he set up a successful radical bookshop, which was highly regarded by publisher Victor Gollancz of the Left Book Club. The shop became the social centre of the left-wing scene at Cambridge. He began to learn Spanish, adding to his `portfolio’ of languages, with the intention of travelling through Spain, but this plan became more urgent after the outbreak of the civil war in July 1936. Harry Pollitt, on discovering that machine-gunners were needed in Spain, asked MacLaurin - who had been trained to use a Lewis gun when in his school OTC cadet corps - to join the International Brigade. MacLaurin left his
bookshop in the care of his wife, and was off to Spain within the week with the first organised group of eleven volunteers from Britain, led by the Cambridge poet John Cornford, which arrived in Madrid, November 8th 1936. MacLaurin was amongst those who marched down the Gran Via, the main street of the Spanish capital, on November 8th 1936. This arrival was a turning point, boosting the morale of Madrid's people and playing an important role in halting the fascist advance. They were sent to defend the Faculty of Philosophy at the University City, a part of Madrid under attack from Franco's forces, backed by German and Italian tanks, artillery and aircraft. MacLaurin, with Kiwi-born Londoner Steve Yates and two others formed a machine-gun team. On November 9th, their second day in Spain, in savage fighting at the parkland of Casa del Campo, MacLaurin's machine-gun unit remained behind to cover the retreat of their comrades. Sadly, only one of the team survived the engagement with the fascist forces. Cornford, who was killed in Spain a month later, paid MacLaurin this tribute: "If you meet any of his pals tell them he did well here and died bloody well. It's always the best seem to get the worst." Cambridge activists commemorated the two Cambridge men with the Cornford-MacLaurin Memorial Fund, raising money for Spain. MacLaurin's parents did not know he had gone to Spain until they received a telegram with the news of their son's death. They became very active fundraisers for the Auckland branch of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee. In all about 20 New Zealanders went to Spain with the International Brigade as soldiers or medical personnel, along with MacLaurin and Yates, four other New Zealanders were killed in Spain.
Alex Tudor-Hart Dr. Alex Tudor Hart was a student at Cambridge where he was taught by, amongst others, John Maynard Keynes. A life-long Communist from that period, he worked as a GP in the Rhondda Valley in Wales. He served in a field operating theatre during the Spanish civil war. Methods of dealing with fractures and associated wounds after surgery developed by TudorHart and his team in Spain laid the basis for new procedures devloped by him and others, including other Communists, during the Second World war.
David Guest Guest was a noted Communist intellectual, first class scholar at Cambridge and International Brigadier who was killed during the battle of the River Ebro in July 1938. His sister Angela also served in the IB. He was born in 1911, his father being Dr Hayden Guest, Labour MP for Southwark (1923-27) and Islington North (1937-50), for whom a hereditary peerage – a Baronetcy was created on his retirement from the Commons. His mother was Muriel Carmel Goldsmid, daughter of Colonel Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid, a career army officer from a historic family of financiers. An ardent Zionist, in 1895 he founded the Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade. David became a student at Cambridge University in 1929, securing a first honours degree in Mathematics. He went on to study Mathematics & Philosophy at GÜttingen, in Germany, from between 1930-1931. Seeing the growing threat of fascism first hand, he first became involved in anti-fascist activity while in Germany, for which he
received two weeks jail. On his return to Cambridge, it was therefore not surprising that he joined the Communist Party in 1931. Guest, along with Maurice Cornforth, James Klugmann, John Cornford, John Lehmann (the poet and associate of Isherwood and Auden) and four or five others established a Communist branch at Cambridge University. By 1935, it had risen to 25 members and then jumped to about 150 across the whole university soon after. Trinity College alone had 12 members and weekly meetings in the students’ rooms. Willie Gallagher visiting CambridgeUniversity in 1934 set the tone in stating: “We want people who are capable who are good scientists, historians and teachers ... we need you as you are; if you have a vocation, it’s pointless to run away to factories. We want you to study and become good students.” Out of this meeting came the slogan, “Every Communist student a good student”. Guest lectured to Communist Party classes on Mathematics Marxist Philosophy. For a period of time he taught in Moscow but returned to England to lecture at University College in Southampton. In 1938 he declared his joining of the International Brigade: “Today we have certainly entered a period of crisis, when the arguments of 'normal times' no longer apply, when considerations of most immediate usefulness come in. That is why I have decided to take the opportunity of going to Spain...”. Guest threw himself into the Republican struggle. In July 1938, at the battle of Ebro, the British Battalion was ordered to take Hill 481, known to the men as `The Pimple’; they got within a few metres of well-fortified positions on the summit before, over the next six days, these brave attempts by the Battalion to take the Hill were repulsed. It was during this battle that Guest was killed.
After his death, notes he had made while lecturing at the Marx Memorial Workers' School were published as `A Text Book of Dialectical Materialism in 1939’.
John Cornford Rupert John Cornford was born on 27th December 1915 and died on 28th December 1936. He was an English poet and Communist Party member. He was born in Cambridge and educated at Stowe School and Trinity College Cambridge. As an undergraduate, reading history, he joined the CP. From 1933 he was directly involved in Communist Party work, in London, and became close to Harry Pollitt. During the war in defence of the Spanish Republic he both recruited in Cambridge for the International Brigade, and fought himself: firstly though he was in Aragon in August 1936, with a POUM unit which he found politically trying. Returning home to Britain he returned to Spain in December. He was killed at Lopera, near Madrid. Although his poetic opus was relatively small, due primarily to his youth, certain poems strongly suggest he had the potential of poetic greatness. Biographies drawn from the Communist biography website www.grahamstevenson.me.uk and from the Country Standard www.countrystandard.blogspot.com
Read the Morning Star, Britain’s socialist daily paper. Where to buy the Morning Star in Cambridgeshire.
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