The International Brigades Memorial at the Old Spotted Dog Ground

Clapton Community Football Club stalwart and local activist, Kevin Blowe, writes about a significant anniversary and memorial unveiling of the Spanish International Brigades at Clapton's ground on Saturday 26 April.

Since launching its International Brigades-inspired away kit in 2018, Clapton Community Football Club (CCFC), the owners of the Old Spotted Dog Ground on Upton Lane, has wanted to mark the debt of gratitude owed to those who volunteered to join the fight against fascism in Spain. The club also recognises the part that the red, yellow and purple kit has played in the growth of the club and its links to the struggle in Spain.

The now-famous CCFC away kit, featuring the colours of the International Brigades, launched in 2018 with sales in excess of 20,000

We are grateful for the many new friends we have made along the way and it gives us great pride that CCFC has been able to finance a significant memorial to those with who aided the fight for the Spanish Republic between 1936 and 1939. In March 2019, the club had asked to site a memorial in West Ham Park, but our proposal was rejected by the City of London Corporation.

After securing the Old Spotted Dog Ground in 2020, the plan shifted to installing it inside our ground, but a combination of the ongoing pandemic and then the need to have the Old Spotted Dog Ground ready for men’s and women’s first team games meant further delays.

International Brigades banner - proudly on display at many marches and events, courtesy IBMT's website 

However, after six years of planning, the Newham International Brigades memorial is unveiled on Saturday 26 April 2025. The significance of 26 April is also that it marked the anniversary of the ‘carpet bombing’ of the Basque town of Guernica by combined German, Italian and Spanish fascist forces, which became the subject of Picasso’s famous painting. This finally convinced the British government to allow refugee children to travel to Southampton and a number of these children later went on to become professional football players in England and Spain.

Picasso's Guernica painting

We have worked closely with the International Brigade Memorial Trust, whose President Marlene Sidaway lives close to the Old Spotted Dog Ground. Her partner, David Marshall, served in Spain and the poem inscribed upon the memorial was written by David, who is also remembered on a bench in nearby West Ham Park.

The Newham memorial

The club asked local firm Rodwell Memorials, based in Manor Park, to create the memorial in red granite, which was ordered in September 2024. In February 2025, volunteers began work on the concrete base, which was laid by some of the team from Hackney Bumps, an outdoor skate park in Clapton that we previously worked with to raise funds for Gaza Sunbirds and Pal Gaza.

The Newham memorial taking shape )courtesy IBMT website

Fighters against fascism

The memorial pays special tribute to those from the area around the Old Spotted Dog who made that journey, whether to take up arms or to tend to the wounded. The details of those with a link to the local area are given below, along with their dates of birth and death, as well as any known political or trades union affiliations. Lost records as well as changes in the boundaries and administration of the area means that our list may have some omissions.

Newham was not created until 1965 and births before that would have been registered to the boroughs of West and East Ham. Volunteers born in the area may also have only been known by their last address before signing up. Below we list those registered as coming from, or having a strong relationship with West Ham.

If you do know of any further volunteers from the area then please let us know, or inform the International Brigade Memorial Trust on admin@international-brigades.org.uk. You can search for further volunteers in the IBMT database.

Volunteers for Spain

Fred Adams

1911-1994 - Transport & General Workers’ Union

Born in West Ham, Fred Adams was a builder’s labourer, who fought at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937. He received two thigh wounds and was repatriated on medical grounds after eight months in Spain.

Joseph Caleno

1912-1963 - Communist Party

Originally a boot repairer by trade, Leicester-born Joe Caleno spent 13 months in Spain and was cited for bravery at the Battle of Brunete. He was sent home after sustaining an injury, and in 1939 he was living and working in West Ham Lane, Stratford, as a shopkeeper and tobacconist.

Percy Cohen

1901-1974 - Transport & General Workers’ Union

Stratford-born Percy Cohen served  as an ambulance driver in Spain for 18 months, before being repatriated in August 1938. His occupation was given as a provision merchant.

Max Colin

1912-1997 - Young Communist League

Born in Stepney, Max Colin lived in Rosebery Avenue, Newham. He was a driver and mechanic, serving in that capacity for 10 months in Spain. He was wounded at the Battle of Brunete in the summer of 1937.

Charles Cormack

1912-1938 - Communist Party

Born in Forest Gate, where he lived in Vansittart Road, Charles Cormack was killed on 27 August 1938 in the Battle of the Ebro on his 26th birthday. He had been in Spain for five months. He worked as a driver before joining the International Brigades.

James Cormack

1910-1991 - Communist Party

James was the brother of Charles Cormack and lived in the same house on Vansittart Road. The pair arrived together in Spain in March 1938. The Lambeth-born painter was wounded in the Battle of the Ebro in August 1938, losing three fingers. He returned home four months later and then lived in Field Road, Forest Gate.

Cecil Cranfield

1906-1976 - Labour Party

A former lightweight amateur boxing champion, Cecil Cranfield was born in Camberwell and worked as a salesman. When he joined the International Brigades, his address was given as Romford Road, Forest Gate. He was a machine-gunner in Spain, where he remained for eight months, and was wounded in January 1938 at the Battle of Teruel.

George Degude

1910-1937 - Communist Party

Born in West Ham, George Degude lived at Newington Hall Villas, Church Street, Stoke Newington. He arrived in Spain in February 1937 and was an ambulance driver. He sustained a fatal head injury at the Battle of Brunete in July 1937 and died soon afterwards.

Edward Dickinson

1903-1937 - Industrial Workers of the World

Born in Grimsby, Edward Dickinson was a salesman who gave his address as Upton Lane, Forest Gate. He arrived in Spain in December 1936 and was captured at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937 while second-in-command of the British Battalion’s machine-gun company. He was shot on 13 March 1937 after protesting over the shooting of a fellow prisoner.

Gerrard Doyle

1907-1970 - Communist Party

Limerick-born driver and moulder Gerrard Doyle served in Spain for 17 months and was wounded in fighting at Jarama and at Brunete, in February and July of 1937. In March 1938 he was captured at Calaceite and held at the prisoner of war camp at San Pedro de Cardeña, near Burgos, until returning home in October 1938 in a prisoner exchange with Italian troops. He gave his address as Vale Road, Forest Gate.

Thomas Duncombe

1913-1938 - Communist Party, National Union of General & Municipal Workers

Born in West Ham, Thomas Duncombe gave an address at Rosher Road, Stratford, when he arrived in Spain in February 1938. He was a labourer and was listed as missing, presumed killed, at Gandesa on 3 April of that year.

Leslie Huson

1907-1938 - Communist Party, Transport & General Workers’ Union

Metallurgist Leslie Huson was born in West Ham and emigrated to Canada when he was 18, but had returned home and was living in Clerkenwell when he joined the International Brigades in February 1938. He survived for only two months, dying of pneumonia in hospital in Valls, Catalonia.

David Marshall

1916-2005 - Young Communist League

David Marshall, a civil servant from Middlesbrough, was one of the first volunteers in Spain. Arriving in Spain in August 1936, he was wounded at Cerro de los Ángeles, near Madrid, and repatriated in January 1937. After service in the British Army, he became a set designer and carpenter with Joan Littlewood’s theatre company at Stratford’s Theatre Royal, eventually settling in Forest Gate. He lived in Reginald Road, close to West Ham Park, where there is a memorial bench to him.

John O’Connor

1915-1999 - Communist Party, National Union of Railwaymen

Steel fixer John O’Connor was born in Poplar and was living on Upton Lane, Forest Gate when he volunteered, arriving in Spain in February 1938. He was in the International Brigades for 10 months, serving as a cartographer and lookout with the British Battalion at the Battle of the Ebro in the summer of 1938.

Pat O’Mahoney

1890-Unknown

Canadian-born Pat O’Mahoney was a veteran of the First World War who lived in Geere Road, Stratford. He was a nurse/masseur and arrived in Spain in February 1937. He was wounded at the Battle of Jarama later that month and sent home in May 1937.

Gordon Siebert

1910-1990 - Labour Party

Gordon Siebert was a clerk, born in West Ham. He arrived in Spain in October 1937 and did not return home until the end of the Spanish Civil War in April 1939, having been imprisoned for disciplinary offences.