George Brown
Born(1906-10-05)5 October 1906
Inistioge, County Kilkenny, Ireland
Died7 July 1937(1937-07-07) (aged 30)
Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
Cause of deathKilled in action
Political partyCommunist Party of Great Britain
SpouseEvelyn Mary Taylor
Military Career
Allegiance Spanish Republic
Service/branch International Brigades
UnitBritish Battalion of the "Abraham Lincoln" XV International Brigade
Battles/warsSpanish Civil War

George Brown (5 November 1906 – 7 July 1937) was an Irish born communist activist and trade unionist who was based in Manchester, England for most of his life. He was a brigadista in the International Brigades fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and was killed in the Battle of Brunete in 1937.

Biography

Memorial to George Brown, Inistioge, Kilkenny

Brown was born on 5 November 1906 [1] at Ballyneale on the outskirts of the village of Inistioge, County Kilkenny, Ireland. His parents were Francis Brown and Mary (née Lackey) who came home to Inistioge specifically for George to be born there. They later returned to their adopted home of Manchester where George grew up. He began working at the age of 14 or younger as a weaver and later worked as a labourer in a number of employments. He was heavily influenced by the harsh conditions for workers in Britain at the time and soon joined the trade union movement. The 1926 British General Strike was a turning point in his life and his experience there led to him joining the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1931 he went to Soviet Russia to spend a year studying at the International Lenin School in Moscow.[2] He would later represent that party in the 1934 local elections in the Openshaw ward. His director of elections Evelyn Mary Taylor would later become his wife. Brown became more and more active in the Communist Party and was elected to its national executive committee in 1935.

In 1936 with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Brown was one of the hundreds of communists in Britain and around the world to volunteer to fight fascism and joined the International Brigades to join the fight for the Spanish Republic. During his time in Spain Brown became a political commissar. Brown was killed during fighting for control of Madrid on 7 July 1937, during the Battle of Brunete.[3][4]

An annual memorial weekend has been held in Brown's honour in his native Inistioge since 2008.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "George Brown - Portrait of a Communist leader". irelandscw.com. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  2. ↑ McLoughlin, Barry (2014). Fighting for Republican Spain 1936-38. Lulu.com. p. 184. ISBN 9781291968392.
  3. ↑ "Irish Volunteers". XV International Brigade in Spain. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  4. ↑ Lane, A.T. (1995). Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders, Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 151. ISBN 9780313264566.
  5. ↑ "Inistioge - Events". Archived from the original on 6 May 2011.
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