Plaque to Doug Jolly in Cromwell

For over 50 years the only formal recognition of any New Zealander who had served in the Spanish Civil War was a public reserve in the Auckland suburb of New Lynn. In 1942, when New Lynn was a largely working-class suburb, Sister René Shadbolt Park was named for the Auckland nurse René Shadbolt, who had provided medical support during the conflict. However, no signage acknowledged the reason for the name, over time it became shortened simply to Shadbolt Park, and its meaning was lost. Eventually, in 2011, a commemorative bronze plaque, accompanied by a ceramic portrait of Sister Shadbolt in her nurse’s uniform, was unveiled at the site, now once again officially known as Sister René Shadbolt Park. 

Local interest in the history of New Zealand participation in the Spanish Civil War was revived in 2006, by a public seminar followed by the publication of the first book on the subject, Kiwi Companeros. 

New Zealand’s ties with Spain grew stronger with the opening of a Spanish Embassy in 2009. The inaugural Spanish Ambassador, Marcos Gómez, funded a plaque to New Zealand’s International Brigaders, which was unveiled in Wellington in 2011. It stands on the city’s waterfront, since the waterside workers’ and seamen’s unions were among the strongest local supporters of the Spanish Republican government, and several New Zealanders who took part in the conflict had worked on the wharves.  

The bronze memorial plaque is dedicated to ‘all New Zealanders who contributed to the defence of freedom in Spain (1936–1939) – For Spain and Humanity.’ The expression ‘For Spain and Humanity’ formed part of the Andalusian regional anthem, which was banned under Franco and only reinstated 40 years later. It was also the motto of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee, the grassroots organization set up in New Zealand 1936 to raise funds to send medical staff and supplies to Republican Spain. 

A second commemorative plaque was unveiled in March 2018 in the southern lakeside town of Cromwell, to honour the pioneering civil war surgeon Douglas Jolly, who was born in Cromwell in 1904. The plaque (shown in the above photo) stands on a wall of the former general store founded by Jolly’s grandfather and later managed by his children. Several of Doug Jolly’s descendants, together with the Spanish ambassador and the district’s mayor, attended the unveiling ceremony.