Records about the Spanish Civil War

 


We hold a number of collections which include original material of Australians who volunteered to serve in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. There are also files and publications relating to protests against the war.

 

PERSONAL PAPERS

 

Amirah Inglis Collection

Historian Amirah Inglis gathered original records, photographs, printed material and oral histories for her book, Australians and the Spanish Civil War (1987). There are photographs of Australian volunteers, and contemporary press clippings, postcards, posters and stamps.  Her files also include her research notes on International and General Brigades, nurses, refugees, Australian Catholics, the Spanish Relief Committee, and trade unions; poetry relating to the war; medals and badges of Mary Lowson; tapes of interviews with Lloyd Edmonds, Harry Buttonshaw, Joe Carter and others; and Ralph Gibson’s notes for his book on Spain (N171, 9 boxes, 2 albums).

 

Margaret Howells Collection

Correspondence, photographs, newspaper cuttings, and printed material including postcards and pamphlets relating to Australian participation in the Spanish Civil War (Z299, 2 boxes).

 

J. Normington-Rawling Collection

Files including: Movement against War and Fascism: Spain: handbills, press cuttings etc, 1936-1939 (N57/479), Spanish Relief Committee, 1936-1939 (N57/450), press clippings: Spain (New Statesman, Communist Review), 1937 (N57/822), pamphlets relating to the Spanish Civil War, 1934-1938, (N57/1362-1375), serials Alianza and Juventud, 1938 (N57/2063-64) and posters (N57/2270-71).

 

Phil Thorne Collection (P15)

Records of the Spanish Relief Committee (SRC) which was formed in Sydney in August 1936 to provide ‘moral and material aid to the anti-Fascist people of Spain’. Includes minutes of the SRC and Executive Committee, 1936-1940 (P15/3); correspondence of Phil Thorne, Secretary, including letters from nurses in Spain and circular letters, 1936-1939 (P15/4-6); extracts from the diary of Una Wilson and personal reminiscences, c1938 (P15/12); printed material (P15/1 and Boxes 1-2), periodicals (P15/2) including Republican Spain: Weekly Notes and News, 1938 and photographs (P15, Box 1). There are many pamphlets which are also found in other collections; those listed separately under Pamphlets below are only those not found in this collection. 

 

Tom and Mary Wright Collection

Correspondence of WA Morcom to Mary Lamm (Wright) including press cuttings, 10 July 1938 (Z267/Box 17) and Spanish Civil War pamphlets, 1936-1952 and paper by Phil Thorne on Spanish Relief Committee, 1985 (Z267/Box 26).

 

UNION AND ORGANISATION RECORDS

 

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)

Secretary’s files, Sydney file, 1937-1939 (N21/60) includes correspondence with Spanish Relief Committee, proceedings of NSW Trade Union Congress, Apr 1938, and responses by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons to ACTU deputation and correspondence, Mar-Jun 1938.

 

Secretary’s files, England, New Zealand, Geneva, 1937-1940 (N21/63) includes correspondence from Sir Walter Citrine, Trades Union Congress, on opposition to UK non-interventionist agreement.

 

ACTU Special Congress Papers, 1937: agenda item ‘The Dangers of War’ and supplementary agenda paper ‘Spain’, 22-23 July 1937, and 1939: agenda item ‘International Situation’, 6 March 1939 (S784).

 

Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen, Queensland Division

War and Fascism, 1937-1941 (E212/556).

 

Australians in Spain Memorial Appeal Committee Correspondence, leaflets, photographs and cassette tapes relating to the Australians in Spain Memorial, unveiled in Canberra in 1993. The tapes include reminiscences by English volunteers (N173, 1 box).

 

Sheet Metal Working, Agricultural Implement & Stovemaking Industrial Union of Australia, NSW

Correspondence, 1936 (E196/5/1); correspondence with organisations, 1938-1939, including Spanish War films, 1938 and pamphlet ‘Truth about Spanish Civil War’ by Sam Aarons and Alice Holloway, 1937 (E196/6/1); correspondence with organisations, 1939-1940 (E196/6/3).

 

PHOTOGRAPHS

See also the Amirah Inglis, Margaret Howells and Phil Thorne collections above.

 

Australian Coal and Shale Employees Federation

Group of people with Spanish Relief Committee placard, 1930s (E165/56/7, K2433) and farewell to the four Australian nurses who went to the Spanish Civil War, 1936 (E165/56/23, K2448).

 

Joe Harris, United Operative Painters Union, Qld

Float at protest against fascism in Spanish Civil War, c. 1936 (Z625/Box 38).

 

United Operative Bricklayers Trade Society, NSW

Press photographs relating to women and children in the Spanish Civil War (Z534/Box 6).

 

Waterside Workers Federation of Australia

Joe Carter, Port Kembla wharf labourer and member of the International Brigades (see also Maritime Workers Journal, 1994) (Z432/Box 86).

 

SERIALS

Australian Labour Defender, 1933-1936 (S206)

Australian Quarterly, Dec 1936 (S220)

Common Cause, Feb 1938 issue (S104)

Information Service (SRC), 1936-1937 (S486)

 

PAMPHLETS

See also the Phil Thorne Collection above, as only those not found in this collection are listed here.

 

Anon., Twenty years under the Fascist dictatorship of General Franco, London, 1959 (McDonald P39/1/654)

Anon., Por Euzkadi hacia la victoria!, Valencia, 1937 (Wright P120/646)

Anon., El clero vasca, fiel al Gobierno de la Republica, se dirige al Surno Pontifice, para hacer constar que la bandalica destruccion de Durango y Guernica se debio exclusivamente a la accionde los aviones alemanes, 1937 (Wright P120/1419)

Blackwell, R., The Spanish revolution revisited, Chicago, 1940s (Playford P124/420)

Burns, E., The People’s Front, London, 1936 (Wright P120/104)

Campbell, J.R., Spain’s ‘left’ critics, London 1937 (Wright P120/116)

Code, J.B., The Spanish war and lying propaganda, New York, 1939? (Wright P120/143)

Davies, J.L., The Spanish Church and Politics, London, 1937 (Playford P64/15/18)

Gallardo, O.Y., Un grand Catholique espagnol vous parle…, Paris, 10 Oct 1936 (Turner P2/1/483)

Greaves, H.R.G., The truth about Spain, London, 1938 (SUA E183/77/225)

Hanighen, F., The war for raw materials in Spain, Melbourne, 1937 (McDonald P94/1/311)

Hernandez, J., Spain organises for victory, London, 1930s (Wright P120/361)

Ibarruri D. (La Pasionaria), For the Independence of Spain, for the Republic, for Liberty: Union for All Spaniards, Madrid-Barcelona, 1938 (ACSEF N144/1170)

Journalist, A. (pseud.), Foreign journalists under Franco’s terror, London, 1937 (Wright P120/399)

McGovern, J., Terror in Spain, London, 1938? (Kavanagh P12/1/21)

Ministerio de Propaganda, Spain, Los nacionales postcard (Wright P120/1422)

Negrin, J., Speech by the President of the Council of Ministers, Barcelona, 14 Oct 1938 (Wright P120/1420)

Negrin, J., The Thirteen Points for which Spain is Fighting, 1938 (Wright P120/1421)

Pollitt, H., Arms for Spain, London, 1936 (SUA E183/77/385)

Rios, F. de los, What is happening in Spain?, four addresses by the Spanish Ambassador to USA, London, 1937 (Holland P5/1/1135)

Russell, A., The truth about Spain, Sydney, 1945 (SUA E183/77/395)

Spanish Medical Aid Committee report, London, 1936 (Turner P2/1/969)

Spanish Relief Committee, Exiled! 460,000 Spanish refugees have fled into France, Melbourne, 1939 (E196/3/12/2)

Subsecretaria de Propaganda, Spain, Ironicas de la guerra (recopilacion de articulos periodisticos), 1937 (Wright P120/1423)

UK Labour Party, Madrid: The military atrocities of the rebels, London, 1937 (FTS P20/1/68)

Varga, E., Spain in revolution, Sydney, 1936 (Turner P2/1/1042)

Wallon, H., Children in Franco Spain, Spanish National Commission in defence of children, 1952 (SUA E183/77/465)

War Victims Relief Committee, Too late to prevent that!, Brisbane, 1930s (SUA E183/77/468)

Weinert, E., Six songs for democracy, New York, 1940 (SUA E183/77/471)

 

BOOKS AND THESES

Anderson, J.S., The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on the NSW working class politics and opinion, University of NSW honours thesis, 1964 (P15/11)

Cox, G., Defence of Madrid: An Eyewitness Account of the Spanish Civil War, 2006 (P88/573)

Miranda, C., Australia and the Spanish Civil War: Politics and People, University of Canberra, 1991 (P88/312)

Darian-Smith, K., The Spanish Relief Committee, Australia 1936-1940: Pioneers against Fascism (P88/94)

Smith, C., Pioneers against Fascism? Australia’s Spanish Relief Committee, honours thesis (P88/171).