Sculpture

International Brigade

Erection date: 5/10/1985

Inscription

{On the front of the plinth:}
International Brigade
In honour of over 2100 men & women volunteers who left these shores to fight side by side with the Spanish people in their heroic struggle against fascism, 1936 - 1939. Many were wounded and maimed. 526 were killed. Their example inspired the world.

{On the back of the plinth:}
This memorial, unveiled by Michael Foot 5th October 1985, was made possible by the support of many democratic organisations, individuals and the Greater London Council.

{and low down:}
Sculptor - Ian Walters
{On the right side of the plinth:}
‘They went because their open eyes could see no other way'
{On the left side of the plinth:}
‘Yet freedom! Yet thy banner, torn, but flying, streams like the thunder-storm against the wind'

{New plaque laid in the ground in 2012:}
No Pasaran / They shall not pass
The 2,500 International Brigade volunteers who left from Britain and Ireland were among 35,000 men and women from 53 countries who went to the aid of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.  They faced enormous odds.  The treacherous generals who rose up against Spain’s elected government won the war with the help of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.  Those regimes were defeated in the Second World War that started, as the volunteers had predicted, a few months after the civil war ended.  Democracy was restored in Spain in 1977 and in 2007 the Spanish parliament awarded Spanish citizenship to all surviving International Brigade veterans.
This plaque was unveiled in 2012.
International Brigade Memorial Trust

The quote “they went….other way” is a paraphrase of two lines from C. Day Lewis’s 1938 poem, The Volunteer. “Yet, Freedom… against the wind” comes from Byron’s 1812 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

Site: International Brigade (1 memorial)

SE1, Jubilee Gardens

These gardens were laid out in 1977 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and then redesigned for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics in 2012. This memorial was kept in roughly the place where we photographed it with new hard-standing around and a new plaque laid in the ground in front.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
International Brigade

Subjects commemorated i

International Brigades

A military uprising in Spain in July 1936 was assisted by Hitler and Mussolin...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
International Brigade

Created by i

Greater London Council

Replaced the LCC. The GLC was abolished, some say, because Mrs Thatcher could...

Read More

International Brigade Memorial Trust

From the picture source website: The International Brigade Memorial Trust wa...

Read More

Lord Byron

Born Holles Street, baptised at St Marylebone church in the same year. Spent ...

Read More

Michael Mackintosh Foot

Politician and journalist. Born Plymouth. Leader of the Labour party 1980-198...

Read More

Cecil Day Lewis

Poet and novelist. Born Ireland but brought up in London. His mystery novels ...

Read More

Show all 6

Nearby Memorials

Zimbabwe House - Epstein

Zimbabwe House - Epstein

WC2, Strand, 429

Don’t believe Wikipedia when it says that "the mutilated condition of many of the sculptures has nothing to do with prudish censorship". ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Gertrude & Harold Baillie Weaver

Gertrude & Harold Baillie Weaver

NW1, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, St John's Lodge Garden

The statue is known as 'The Shepherdess' and is signed "C.L. Hartwell. R.A." It appeared, as 'The Goatherd's Daughter', on one of the car...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Surrey Commercial Docks - relief model

Surrey Commercial Docks - relief model

SE16, Stave Hill

In 1985 the William Curtis Ecological Park was returned to the site owner, the London Docklands Development Corporation, who provided thi...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Spike's statue - Goons

Spike's statue - Goons

N3, East End Road, 17, Stephens House

This little group shows Secombe, Milligan and Sellers, holding "Goons" scripts so it probably commemorates the Last Goon show, in 1972. D...

5 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
Caryatid - right

Caryatid - right

SE16, Southwark Park

A nearby information board informs: The Caryatides of Rotherhithe Old Town Hall Designed and constructed {* see our note below} by Henry...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator