Sean Creighton

Battersea & Wandsworth History

I research, write and talk about aspects of Battersea and Wandsworth’s history. Battersea was merged into Wandsworth in 1964/5.

Talks and Writings

(Some are available in printed, website or emailable formats. Those underlined are available on request by email.)

• The Ancient Order of Foresters in Battersea and Neighbouring Districts. (Agenda Services 1999)
• Battersea and New Unionism. South London Record, 4, 1989
• Battersea and the Formation of the Workers’ Educational Association. In Stephen K Roberts (ed). ‘A Ministry of Enthusiasm. Centenary Essays on the Workers’ Education Association. (Pluto Press 2003: www.plutobooks.com . See review on Institute of Historical Research website: www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/colesJ.html
• Battersea Central School. Notes on Running the School 1930 – 1939 is on www.hawkley1939.org.uk/_private/_notes_on_running_the_school_1930.htm
• Battersea Central School. Reminiscence Questions is on
www.hawkley1939.org.uk/History/battersea_central_school.htm  (site of 2nd World War pupil evacuees)
• Battersea Herald League. (Newsletter, Battersea & Wandsworth Labour & Social History Group, No. 9, October 1979)
• Battersea Labour Movement, An Introduction to, 1884-1914 (Newsletter, Battersea & Wandsworth Labour & Social History Group, Nos. 4 & 5. Reprinted 1980)
• Battersea Labour Party. "Not For Me, Not For You, BUT FOR US". Celebrating 80 Years of Battersea Labour Party. (Battersea Labour Party Booksales September 1988)
• Black & Asian Heritage. See Black & Asian Heritage page
• Building Workers. Rank and File Agitation for 3/- An Hour. Building Workers 1945-47. (Agenda Services 1999)
• Co-operative Movement. The Municipal Mecca. The development of the co-operative movement in Battersea. In Bill Lancaster and Paddy McGuire (eds), Towards The Co-operative Commonwealth. Essays in the History of Co-operation. (Co-operative College and History Workshop Trust, 1996)
• The Development of Battersea. A revised version with illustrations of Sean’s to Battersea Society in 2003 on the development of Battersea is on - www.hawkley1939.org.uk/History/development-Battersea.htm
• Friendly societies, trade unions and politics – contributions in Patrick Loobey. Battersea Past. (Historical Publications 2002). Reviewed on www.hawkley1939.org.uk/History/battersea_central_school.htm
• From Exclusion to Political Control. Radical and Working Class Organisation in Battersea 1830s to 1918.
• George Rowe. An Appreciation of George Rowe. (Wandsworth Society Newsletter, No.5, 1993)
• George Wheeler - Battersea International Brigader – Review of Reminisences – see below
• John Archer see Black & Asian Heritage page
• John Seaman – Wandsworth socialist - Book Review – see below
• Latchmere Estate: Celebrating its 100th Anniversary. This talk to the Latchmere Estate Residents’ Association in 2003 is on www.hawkley1939.org.uk/History/latchmere_estate.htm
• Labour and Public History in South London. This talk on 29 January 2005 to the Ruskin Public History Discussion Group at Ruskin College, Oxford, can be seen on the Public History and Spaces page on this site.
• Latchmere Baths. The First Twenty Years. (In aid of Latchmere Baths Defence Fund 1987)
• Lavender Hill Area – Notes for a History. A few years ago BAC (formerly Battersea Arts Centre) sponsored a project about Lavender Hill. It opened up an interesting way of looking how an area changes and in particular the changing role of a main street over time in relation to its functions, the facilities along it, and the way people perceive it as it changes over time. It also provided a way of integrating a variety of different specialist interests in aspects of local history, including the built environment, transport, public services, cultural activities, religion, politics and social life. Sean contributed historical material about the road.
• Notes and Sketches: The First May Day, Victoria Dwellings, The Co-operative Movement, Battersea Socialist Sunday School, Maternity and Child Welfare, Arthur Lynch, Latchmere Estate, David Guest. In Battersea Labour Movement Notes & Sketches 1850s-1930s. (Battersea & Wandsworth Labour & Social History Group, 1982)
• Organised Cycling and Politics: the 1890s and 1900s in Battersea. The Sports Historian, Journal of the British Society of Sports History, No. 15, May 1995. To read article Google search for “Organised Cycling and Politics”.
• 'Parallel Existences or Cross-linkages? Exploring Freemasonry and other Mutual Organisations in Battersea and Wandsworth'. Talk at Band of Brothers Conference December 2004. See also Labour & Mutuality History page.
• Railway Workers 1890-91. This note sets out details about railway workers in the Battersea and Nine Elms area in 1890 and 1891 based on information published in The South Western Gazette newspaper.
• Stephen Sanders 1871-1941. Battersea Socialist & Labour MP (Battersea & Wandsworth Labour & Social History Group (1979).
• Working people in Battersea. PowerPoint slide illustrated talk on the history of working people to the Battersea Society AGM in 2005.

History & Social Action Battersea & Wandsworth History Enewsletter:

No. 1. Oct 2003. Contents:

• Why an ENewsletter
• Section 1: Black And Asian History in Battersea and Wandsworth: Len Garrison; Black History on the Web; Francis Barber – ‘Resurrection’ at Lichfield; Black People in the Wandsworth area 17th-19th centuries; Reportage on Black and Asian People and Issues in Local Papers 1860s/70s; Yussef Sirrie and ‘The Arab Boy’ Pub; Aspects of Life in the 1920s, 1930s; Performances of ‘Hiawatha’ in 1920s and 30s; Saklatvala and the League Against Imperialism; Clive Branson and the Great Indian Famine of 1943-44; Aspects of Life in the 1940s; Aspects of Life in the 1950s; Selva, an Indian member of Putney Labour Party 1960s and 1970s
• Section 2: Balham and Tooting History on the web
• Section 3: Children and Young People’s History: Battersea Central School Wartime Evacuation; Helping Children Have Country Holidays
• Section 4: Battersea & Wandsworth Area 17th-19th Centuries: Battersea Watermen; English Civil War and Revolution; Samuel Pepys and Battersea; Wandsworth & Clapham Poor Law Union; St Mary’s Battersea Parish Church; Richard Phillips, Wandsworth Conservative pawnbroker; Investors in the East India Company 1827
• Section 5: Publications Available
• Afterword

The newsletter has not been continued because this website was started.

Websites with Wandsworth & Battersea history material

Please note that websites are in a continual process of change, sometimes they shut down, sometimes they take material off them. It is always worth doing a web search on any particular detailed topic you are interested in find out more on. If you use Google it is always best to start off doing a UK search; but sometimes there be extra material on a world wide search. To make your searching easier always put a search containing more than one word in speech marks “ “. You can also search by the topic name you are interested in and add e.g. + Battersea to further narrow down the number of sites that will be displayed.

• Battersea Central School Pupil Evacuees. The Hawkley group brings together people who were evacuated from Battersea Central School during the War, their families and others interested in the School. A number of member shave posted reminisences of growing up in Battersea and being evacuees. www.hawkley1939.org.uk
• Battersea Power Station: www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk/hist.html
• Ernie Brookers– Growing Up in Battersea: www.brooker3627.fsnet.co.uk/
• Freemasonry – Andrew Prescott’s ‘Freemasonry in Greater London, A Case Study’ is on www.lodgehope337.org.uk/lectures/prescott%20essays%2005.pdf
• Freemasonry. Articles by Andrew Prescott, Centre for Research into Freemasonry, Sheffield University:
o http://freemasonry.dept.shef.ac.uk/index.php?q=papers_4
o http://freemasonry.dept.shef.ac.uk/index.php?q=papers_6
o http://freemasonry.dept.shef.ac.uk/index.php?q=papers_9
Andrew grew up in Battersea, and his parents Joan and Reg were prolific contributors of local history articles in the local press.)
• George Barnsby – A Young Man in Battersea. George is the historian of the Black Country labour movement. He grew up in Battersea in the 1930s. He has started putting his reminisences on his website: www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk – scroll down and click on ‘Subversive’.
• Old Battersea Grammar School: www.oldgrammarians.co.uk/cgi-bin/history_of_bgs.asp
• Old Battersea Yahoo Group of people sharing reminiscences of growing up and living in Battersea up to the early 1970s: OldBattersea@yahoogroups.com  contains a number of supporting photos.
• Parish of Putney: www.allsaintsputney.co.uk/pages/history.html
• Richard Milsom’s Website. A lot of material on the history of Battersea is being added to the website of Richard Milsom who grew up in Battersea: www.milsom.info/Battersea .
• Saklatvala – The Fifth Commandment – biography by his daughter Sehri: www.maze-in.com/saklatvala/index.htm
• St Mary’s Battersea: http://home.clara.net/pkennington/history/history.htm
• Wandsworth (inc. Battersea) general historical introduction. Wandsworth Council: www.wandsworth.gov.uk/Home/LeisureandTourism/Aboutborough/abthistory.htm
• Wandsworth School: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.joiner/wandsworth.htm
• Wimbledon & Putney Commons: www.wpcc.org.uk/HISTORICALINFORMATIONhistory.htm

Wandsworth Historical Society

The main historical society in the Borough is the Wandsworth Historical Society. Website: www.wandsworthhistory.org.uk/

Researching Battersea & Wandsworth Area

• For listings of archives and where they are deposited see: http://www.a2a.org.uk/search/index.asp  and search by Key Word
• Wandsworth Local History Service (Battersea District Library, Lavender Hill). For a quick look at a list of what is available look at catalogue on: www.a2a.org.uk/about/contributors/347-list.asp
• National Archives at Kew have a wide range of material. Search the catalogue e.g. for ‘Battersea’, ‘Putney’. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
• London Metropolitan Archives at Farringdon has a wide range of material. http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/
libraries_archives_museums_galleries/lma/lma.htm
• British Library contains a wide range of material. Search the catalogue e.g. for ‘Battersea’, ‘Putney’. www.bl.uk/catalogues/listings.html
• Local newspapers can be searched at Local History Service at the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale: www.bl.uk/collections/newspapers.html

BATTERSEA: THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Historically Battersea comprises a large area east from Wandsworth Common to Clapham Common, south from the Thames Riverfront tapering down to Balham. The Village was in the northern part lying back from the Thames.

Some aspects of the development of Battersea

• Semi Rural. Well into the 19th Century Battersea was mainly a rural, agricultural and market garden area, with some industry mainly along the riverfront.
• Isolated. Until Battersea Bridge was built in 1771 Battersea Village was a backwater. People going to and from London by-passed it using what are now Battersea Park Rd and York//Wandsworth Rds/Lavender Hill and St John’s Hill.
• Industrial Development. The riverfront became important as industries that set up there could be serviced from boats and barges. The 1840s to 1880s saw a dramatic change of Battersea into an industrial area.
• Railways. From their arrival in 1838 the railways began to dominate the northern part of Battersea helping to trigger the industrial changes with the growth of a large working-class.
• Politics. A wide-range of mutual, collective self-help organisations were established by local workers including co-operatives, trade unions, friendly societies, loan societies, and cultural, educational and sports organisations. Their political organisations controlled Battersea’s local government for all but six years from 1894 to 1964. Battersea Council pioneered municipal services.
• Religious Social Welfare. The Anglican and Non-Conformist Churches played an important role in providing welfare services before the post-war welfare state was established.
• Services. The focus of municipal, cultural and retail facilities became based south of the railway line, with the Town Hall and main Library on Lavender Hill, Clapham Junction shopping centre, and music halls and cinema

• War-time Bombing. Industrial Battersea and the Nine Elms district suffered badly from war-time bombing.
• De-Industrialisation. The 1950s onwards saw Battersea de-industrialised.
• Merger with Wandsworth. Battersea ceased to be a local authority in 1964/5 when it was merged into Wandsworth. From then until 1978 political control swung from Labour to Conservative, back to Labour and then since 1978 to Conservative control.
• Recent Social and Economic Change. Dramatic changes in housing tenure, de-industrialisation and the social and economic composition of the population have resulted in today’s Battersea having pockets of high affluence next to pockets of disadvantage.
• Housing Re-development. As a result of the war damage and slum clearance there were large-scale housing estate developments from the 1950s, including high-rise blocks.

Key dates in the history of Battersea

(with emphasis on buildings that still exist, or pictures of which can be seen)

1067 William the Conqueror grants the Manor of Battersea to Westminster Abbey.
1627 The St. John family become Lords of the Manor.
1675 Walter St. John gives some cottages to the Church wardens to use as almshouses.
1700 Sir Walter St. John’s School is endowed.
1733 Battersea Workhouse opens in Battersea Square.
1736 Baptist Meeting House opens in York Rd.
1763 Isaack Ackerman, a London businessman, builds the Sisters House – one of which survives as Gilmore House on the corner of Elspeth Rd and Clapham Common Northside.
1771 Battersea Bridge opens – a wooden bridge.
1777 St. Mary’s Parish Church is re-built.
John Fownes opens a glove factory.
1782 William Blake marries Catherine Boucher in Battersea Church.
1790 Horizontal Air Mill is built next to St. Mary’s Church.
1801 Benedict Arnold, the American Revolutionary General who switched sides to the British, is buried in the Church.
1811 Town stocks are moved from Battersea Square to church gate.
1815 Wellington’s army at Waterloo wear boots built at Marc Isambard Brunel’s factory in Battersea.
1827 Henry Beaufoy buys land to build acetic acid factory (closed 1901)
1838 Railway line opens through Battersea from south-west to Nine Elms
Israel May Soule is appointed as Baptist Minister (to 1875)
1840 St John’s College for training school masters opens in Battersea House.
1843 Price’s Candles starts production at York Rd factory using palm oil from West Africa.
1846 Railway line from Richmond opens.
1848 Railway is extended to Waterloo Station.
Orlando Jones starch works opens on riverfront (closed 1901)
1849 Christchurch (Battersea Park Rd) is built.
1852 Royal Freemasons’ Girl’s School relocates to Battersea until 1934.
1855 Earl Spencer sells land on Wandsworth Common to build Royal Victoria Patriotic Hospital.
1856 The Morgan brothers set up the Patent Lumbago Crucible Co, later Morgan Crucible, becoming a major employer till the 1970s.
1858 First Chelsea Bridge opens.
Battersea Park opens – built on land that had formed part of Battersea Fields.
Nine Elms Gasworks starts production.
1860 Railway extends across the river to Victoria.
1863 West London Extension line running across Battersea High St and over the Thames opens.
Clapham Junction Station opens.
St. John’s Church in Usk Rd is built.
1865 Nine Elms Gasworks gasholder explodes – ten men killed.
1867 The Congregationalists open their first Church on Battersea Bridge Rd.
1868 St. Paul’s Church on St. John’s Hill opens.
1870 St. Philip’s Church, Queenstown Rd, opens.
Education Act leads to building of schools in Battersea.
1871 St. Saviour’s Church, Battersea Park Rd, opens
After local campaigns Act of Parliament saves Wandsworth and other Commons from development.
Battersea Dogs Home relocates to Battersea Park Rd.
1872 Southlands Wesleyan teacher training college opens in Southlands in the High St (until 1927).
1873 Albert Bridge opens.
1874 St. Mark’s Church on Battersea Rise opens.
1875 Battersea Grammar School is founded as off-shoot of Sir Walter St. John’s
1877 Local campaign saves Clapham Common from development.
1881 Start of tram services
1883 Emmanuel School transfers to Battersea Rise.
1885 Arding & Hobbs Department store opens at Clapham Junction.
1889 Vestry opens Latchmere Baths.
1890 New stone Battersea Bridge opens.
Central Library on Lavender Hill opens.
1891 Battersea Vestry opens new cemetery in Morden.
1892 John Burns is elected as a socialist as Battersea’s Member of Parliament.
1893 Start of building of mansions flats built along Prince of Wales Drive.
Opening of Battersea Town Hall (now Arts Centre) on Lavender Hill.
1894 Progressive Alliance of radical, socialists and Liberal organisations takes control of Battersea Vestry.
1894 Battersea Polytechnic on Battersea Park Rd opens.
1895 Salesian Catholic College moves to Surrey Lane.
1900 Battersea Vestry replaced by Metropolitan Borough of Battersea. Progressive Alliance takes control.
Grand Theatre, St. John’s Hill, opens as music hall, later becoming a cinema, bingo hall and rock venue.
1901 Battersea Council opens its own electricity generating station, and starts to electrify street lighting.
1902 London County buys up tram company and starts electricification form 1903
Anti-Vivisection Hospital opens (later Battersea General Hospital closed 1974)
Latchmere (Burns) Estate opens as Battersea Council’s first housing scheme.
1907 Short Brothers start making planes in railway arches.
Medical students severely damage anti-vivisection Little Brown Dog statue in Latchmere Recreation Ground.
1909 Erksine Clarke retires as Vicar of St. Mary’s
Arding & Hobbs store is destroyed by fire – 8 people die.
1910 London County Council opens St. John’s Hospital (closed 1970s)
1920 The South West London Synagogue opens in Bolingbroke Grove (till 2000)
1922 Shapurji Saklatvala, an Indian Communist is elected as Labour MP in 1922; is defeated 1923; re-elected 1924 (to 1929).
1925 Reference Library opens in Altenburgh Gardens.
1929 Work starts to build Battersea Power Station.
1931 Completion of electrification of street lighting
1934 St. John’s housing estate is completed on site for former St John’s College.
1936 Granada Cinema on St. John’s Hill opens on site of Battersea Grammar School, which had moved to Streatham.
1937 Current Chelsea Bridge opens.
1939 Start of Second World War. Battersea experiences heavy bombing.
1945 Council starts Home Help Service
1951 Battersea Park becomes home for Festival Gardens during the Festival of Britain.
Last tram runs through Battersea.
1959 Battersea Heliport opens.
1964/5 Battersea Council is merged into the new London Borough of Wandsworth.
1985 Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park is unveiled.
2001 Montevetro apartment block in Church Rd opens.

BATTERSEA POPULATION 1831-1921

 

Some Famous People in Battersea:

John Burns. The local socialist leader John Burns becomes a Battersea member of the newly formed London County Council in 1889. From 1889-1892 he is leading figure in Dock and Gas workers' strikes and in the development of New Unions especially among low paid, semi-skilled workers. Many of the new Unions developed into the big unions of today, like Transport & General Workers Union and Unison. 1892 he is elected as socialist MP for Battersea. In 1906 he is appointed Minister in Liberal Cabinet. In 1914 he resigns Cabinet in protest at declaration of First World War.

John Archer (1863-1932), black Catholic Liverpuddlian elected as Progressive Councillor. In 1906 he is elected as Progressive Councillor. In 1913 he is elected as Mayor. Supporter of black rights and colonial freedom. Made his living as a photographer. Special interest public health. Campaigner for the unemployed in the 1920s. Backed Shapurji Saklatvala as Battersea Labour MP until 1926 split between Labour and Communists. Block of flats on St John’s Estate/Battersea Village named after him.

John Smith. 1660s to early 1670s ran a refinery processing sugar from Barbados where he owns plantations.
William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Lived in Battersea Rise/Broomwood Rd area 1792-1807. Campaigner in Parliament for abolition of the slave trade.
John Walter (1739-1812). Founder of Times newspaper. Lived in Gilmore House 1773-1783.
George Alfred Henty (1832-1902). Lived at 33 Lavender Gdns. Journalist and writer of adventure stories for boys.
Edward Thomas (1878-1917). Writer and poet, Educated at Battersea Grammer School. Killed in France in 1917.
Tom Taylor. Editor of Punch magazine lived on Lavender Sweep (1859-1880). President Lincoln was assassinated while watching Taylor’s play ‘Our American Cousin’ in 1865.
Richard Church (1893-1972). Writer. ‘Over the Bridge’ records his reminiscences of growing up in Battersea as a child.
Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912). Died with Scott at the South Pole.
Albert Mansbridge. Founded Workers’ Educational Association and other educational organisations promoting adult education. Went to Walter Sir John’s and Battersea Grammar Schools.
George Shearing (1919-) Blind Jazz musician born in Battersea. Now lives in United States.
Julian Bream, guitarist (1933-). Born in Battersea.
Charlotte Despard. Campaigner for votes for women, freedom for Ireland and other causes. Socialist. Lived and undertook social welfare work in Nine Elms.
Caroline Ganley. Leading socialist and co-operator. Battersea and LCC Councillor. Battersea South’s MP 1945-51.
Buster Merryfield. (1920-99). Born Battersea. Actor. Played Uncle Albert in ‘Only Fools and Horses’.

BOOK REVIEWS

John Seaman – Wandsworth socialist
Book Review. Patricia Seaman. Seaman Saga. A Blacksmith’s Journey from Flitcham, Norfolk to Wandsworth, London. (P. Saunders-White. 2004)

Battersea was famous in the 1890s and 1900s for its Progressive Alliance getting John Burns elected to Parliament in 1892 and taking control of the Vestry from 1894 and then the Borough Council from 1900. Those like me who have concentrated on the political history of Battersea have woefully neglected to look in detail at what was going on at the same time in Wandsworth. Although Wandsworth’s Progressives were never strong enough to emulate the success of their Battersea counterparts, they returned 23 to the Wandsworth Vestry in 1896 to the Municipal Reformers 57. They did best in Wandsworth Parish with 20 to 19. One of these Progressives was John Seaman, who was associated with the Social Democratic Federation.

John was born in 1865 in Flitcham, Norfolk, the son of a blacksmith. The family were active Primitive Methodists. Some after from 1881 he moved to London. Living in n Walthamstow he married a widow Mary Ann with 4 children, and moved into 3 Dalby Rd in Wandsworth by 1891 and later into 33 North St (later renamed Fairfield St). They had two children together. While remaining a Primitive Methodist he supported the Salvation Army which his wife was active in.

From 1894 he worked for the carrier company Hampton’s (William Hampton Ltd from 1911) as a farrier working with 500 horses. Its wharf was situated between York Rd, the railway line, North St and the Canal. He was able to turn his blacksmith into engineering skills, becoming an engineer, being responsible for steam cranes operated by the firm along Wandle, designing the chassis for the firm’s fleet of steam lorries, and for the two gas engines which powered the firm’s operation. He remained there for the rest of his working life.

He was a trade unionist and set up the Wheelwright’s Operatives’ Union. He stood for the Progressives in Fairfield Ward in the Vestry elections of 1896; the Progressives won all nine seats. He also served on the Wandsworth District Board of Works. He kept up a constant campaign contrasting the high salaries of the white-collared staff to the poor levels of wages paid to the blue collar workers, especially the roadsweepers. He was re-elected in May 1899. His support for the anti-Boer War movement seems to have contributed to him not being elected to the new Wandsworth Council in 1900. He supported Johns speaking on an open-air platform at the Frying Pan on Wandsworth Common. They both admired each other.

Despite his politics John Seaman got on well with his boss William Hampton, and despite his religious affiliations he liked a drink, either a whiskey in William’s office or a pint at the Grapes and the Red Lion. When William died in 1911 he left John £75. John died in 1934.

John Seaman’s story forms a major part of an excellent family history by his granddaughter Patricia Seaman. It goes way beyond the narrow confines of much family history work, setting John and the Seaman family in their social, economic and political context, breathing life into the past. It also documents the processes, set backs and joys involved in undertaking the research, and reproduces original documents, like birth and death certificates and lots of family and other photographs, including a Wandsworth Salvation Army group, and a picture of John in 1914 with the Directors of Hamptons. It gives us a glimpse into the industrial life of the Wandsworth end of the Wandle. The remainder of the book is devoted to the history of the rest of the Seamans, especially those who stayed in Flitcham.

Patricia Seaman is to be congratulated on a valuable contribution to Wandsworth’s history, an important reminder of the rural roots and continuing connections of many of the people who moved into Battersea and Wandsworth. In particular it opens up new lines for research, including: the history of the Wandsworth Primitive Methodists and Salvationists, of the Wandsworth Social Democratic Federation, the industrial history of the Wandsworth stretch of the Wandle, the politics and work of the Wandsworth Vestry and District Board of Works in those last four years of their existence, and the history of the Wheelwrights’ Operatives Union. I am sure there is a lot more to found out about John Seaman’s life and his contribution as an ordinary working family man. (January 2005)

- A shorter version of this review was published in Wandsworth Historian No. 80. Spring 2005

George Wheeler - Battersea International Brigader – Review of Reminisences

George Wheeler. To Make The People Smile Again: a Memoir of the Spanish Civil War. Foreword by Jack Jones. Edited by David
Leach. Zymurgy Publishing. 2003. ISBN 1-903506-07-7. £8.99

One of the most public manifestations of political action by ordinary Britons in the period of 1936 to 1938 was the wide-ranging support given to the Spanish Republic in its fight against the military revolt led by the fascist, General Franco, supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Many readers of the WH will know a bit about Jack Jones, the former leader of the Transport & General Workers Union, and, since his retirement, an active advocate for a decent deal for pensioners. Jones was one of many who enlisted in the International Brigades to go and fight for the Republic in what they saw as an important battle to curtail the spread of fascism. Another was George Wheeler, a young skilled wood-machinist born in Battersea in 1914, who volunteered in the spring of 1938 and was captured and imprisoned by the fascists that September. International Brigades were formed from volunteers from various parts of the world, including Australia, Canada, the United States, and 2,500 from Britain and Ireland, mostly young workers, like Jones and Wheeler. George survived the War and captivity, and had his memoir of fighting in Spain published as he entered his ninetieth year. It is a very readable account that conveys the horror of war and the brutality of captors towards their prisoners, but also records the humour, the bravery, and supportive warmth, affection and solidarity people offer each other in adversity.

We learn very little about George’s Battersea background except that he grew up in a politically progressive environment, in which his father was an active socialist and a former Borough Councillor. While sympathetic to the left, the younger George concentrated on football, swimming, chess and boxing. His decision to go to Spain followed his attendance at a rally in Trafalgar Square at which Aneurin Bevan condemned the Conservative Government policy of non-intervention in the Civil War and calling for support for Spain. The group of volunteers that set off with George from Victoria Station via Newhaven, Dieppe, Paris and Arles was led by Jack Jones. Because of the policy of non-intervention by the British and French Governments, they had to pretend to be tourists. There was the dangerous trek over the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain in groups of two led by expert guides. Once in Spain, they signed up to the Spanish Republican Army. George records that he was not ashamed to admit he was homesick.

He then gives a detailed account of his involvement in the ensuing campaign. At first the volunteers received training in hill fighting, and then, in late June, George joined the British Battalion in the Chabola Valley, where he met two other Battersea Brigaders, Bert Sines and the Communist, David Haden Guest, both of whom knew his father. Letters from home reminded George of how he missed his family. Whilst he was on the Ebro front, the British Battalion position was overrun by fascist troops and compelled to surrender. George was in a group of seven who were interrogated and forced to dig a grave big enough to hold them all. Assuming he was going to be shot, George thought of his parents and family, and of cycling, swimming and the good times spent in London. The captain in charge was overruled by another officer, and they were marched off into captivity. They were interrogated further; and after each man was taken out, there was a burst of gunfire. When George was taken outside, he discovered it was a sadistic joke. No one had actually been shot.

To stay mentally and physically fit during their period of captivity, the prisoners organised classes and discussion groups. George also played chess and boxed. They were visited by a Colonel Martin representing the British Government, who assured them he would get action taken to improve their appalling living conditions. He also agreed to pass a message to George’s family. Nothing happened, and indeed it was not until the spring of 1939 that he and most of the other Britons were released. They, together with Canadian and Swiss volunteers, were driven by coach to the French border, and they marched across singing the Internationale. British, French and Canadian Government representatives met them. Arrangements were made for them to wash, receive fresh clothing and have a good meal. Unlike the Canadian, the British Government required the British to promise to pay the cost of their passage back home. It was the Canadians who ensured that the British had food on the train to Dieppe. Back in Newhaven they were met by members of the International Brigade Association and questioned by ‘gentlemen’ from Scotland Yard.

Back in London and kitted out with new clothes from a co-operative warehouse, George took the bus back to Battersea. Not knowing about his return, the Wheelers were having a gathering of friends and family, and his entrance into the house was a surprise. An old friend shouted, ‘Where the bloody hell have you been?’ George married his childhood sweetheart, Winnie, served in the British Army in the Second World War. He then worked as a wood machinist for nearly 30 years, was active in the Labour Party and his trade union. He was a staunch member of the International Brigade Association and the Memorial Trust. His book is dedicated to Winnie, who died following a long period of Alzheimer’s Disease.

- A shorter version of this review was published in Wandsworth Historian No. 82. Spring 2006

Page Updated February 2007