The British Battalion Banner

The banner of the British Battalion of the International Brigades, reminiscent of a more conventional regimental banner, displays the battle honours earnt by the British volunteers in Spain. The Battalion served in all of the major engagements of the Civil War from its formation in December 1936 until its withdrawal in September 1938. An estimated 2400 Britons served in the Battalion, of whom more than 500 were killed, and many more wounded.  

The first Britons to fight had already been in Spain at the start of the Civil War, such as the artist Felicia Browne, who joined a militia column and died in late August on the Aragón front. Small groups soon began to coalesce, such as the Tom Mann Centuria. Numbers increased following the decision by the Communist International in September 1936 to appeal for volunteers and to organise military units on the Republican side. Recruitment for the British battalion was entrusted to the Communist Party of Great Britain, and the leader Harry Pollitt was a frequent visitor to the battalion in the field.  

Most of the other battalions were named after progressive national figures such as Garibaldi and Abraham Lincoln, and the failure to find a similar unifying title for the British Battalion is itself an interesting commentary on the difficulty of creating a radical identity. Initially, the unit was named after Shapurji Saklatvala, the first Communist MP, but the name did not catch on. Another suggestion was the Chartist Battalion. One company was named after the leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee, who visited the British volunteers in late 1937 and who displayed a more robust support for the Republican cause than many prominent figures in the Labour movement. Many of the Irish volunteers ascribed to the battalion did not wish to be associated with a “British” unit and voted to join the Lincoln Battalion. 

The British battalion achieved some notable successes, such as helping to prevent the rebel offensive in the Jarama Valley (February 1937) and the storming of Belchite in September. However, there were also setbacks: the Brunete offensive, fought in blistering heat in July 1937, left few British volunteers fit for action and the commanders bitterly divided, while the unit was shattered during the retreats on the Aragón front in March-April 1938. The survivors, supported by fresh volunteers and many Spanish soldiers, fought their final battle in the Republic’s offensive across the river Ebro.   

The battalion was withdrawn in the autumn of 1938 in the forlorn hope that this gesture would put pressure on the Nationalist side to send home its own foreign fighters. On returning to Britain the remaining volunteers were warmly received, and created an International Brigade Association (IBA), committed to continuing the struggle against fascism in Spain. This and similar banners were carried on marches during the final months of the Civil War and also during the decades-long campaign against the Franco regime that only ended with the dictator’s death in November 1975.