No 523
Monday, 9th June, 2014
Tel: 96 673 0057
REMEMBERING A BRITISH HERO OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
On the 28th of March, 1939, the British coal ship Stanbrook, with her 24 crew, took part in the last evacuation of refugees from the port of Alicante to Oran, a major city on the NW Mediterranean coast of Algeria. In March of 1939, Alicante harbour was blocked off by Franco´s troops, with air support for the blockade provided by German Nazis, thus preventing ships from entering and leaving the area and carrying out any kind of rescue operation. With some 15,000 refugees trapped in the harbour, to be taken by soldiers of the División Littorio, an Italian unit strengthened by Franco´s troops, to concentration camps in Los Almendros, later to be taken to a similar prison in Albatera. Anchored off the coast of Alicante, the Stanbrook was waiting to load oranges and saffron. The ship's Welsh cap-
tain, Archibald Dickson, could see the thousands of helpless refugees in the port, and thus defied the orders of the ship´s owners, who were ceding to Britain´s policy of non-intervention, and moved to take as many on board his ship as he could carry. Helia Gonzalez Beltran, now the honorary president of the memorial group, was just 4 years old at the time, who documented her experience of the event, saying, “We arrived at the port by train from Elx. Once there, a long line separated us from a boat that seemed huge with a strange name and with many people. We, like everyone else, were afraid we wouldn´t reach the walkway that allowed us to reach it”. Continuing, “At last we reached the boat. Strong arms lifted me. I saw a smiling face, a sailor's cap and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. He did not say a word, but that hug, that look, promised something good ... he was Captain Dickson and there was no danger”. Continued on Page 2