Tom Buchanan: The Secret History of Britain's Spanish Civil War Volunteers

Tom Buchanan is reader in modern history and politics at the Oxford University's department for continuing education. He has written three books on aspects of Britain's involvement in the Spanish Civil War: his new book, East Wind: China and the British Left, 1925-1976 will be published by Oxford University Press.

The release of MI5's records on British volunteers during the Spanish civil war is a fascinating new source and an invaluable addition to the available archival information. However, claims in the media that these figures show that many more Britons volunteered than had previously been thought should be treated with caution.

The new sources apparently suggest that some 4,000 Britons departed for Spain (compared with the standard figure of 2,500 or less) – a number that even exceeds the 2,762 that emerged from research in Spanish archives during the 1960s and 70s (at a time when the Franco regime, which had always sought to inflate the number of foreigners fighting in Spain, was still in power). At first sight, therefore, it seems unlikely that there was a phantom regiment of some 1,500 additional British volunteers in Spain.

This new source essentially records those radicals that British intelligence suspected of going to Spain (albeit often with later corroboration provided). Therefore, the list includes those who did not go to Spain to fight (such as the writer Valentine Ackland and the journalist John Langdon-Davies), as well as Eric Blair/George Orwell, who fought for the much smaller ILP contingent. We have to bear in mind that some of those listed may well not have made it to Spain.

One point that does emerge strongly, however, is what a close eye British intelligence kept on the potential volunteers at the ports, and how unwilling they were to prevent their departure. The British government was loth to use the 1870 Foreign Enlistment Act, fearing that if a case came to court it could not secure a conviction, and would face political embarrassment.

How will this new material affect our understanding of the British volunteers?..