Not remembered

I've driven past this memorial countless times. I often wondered what it is. I was jogging slowly past today just after 11am, and for some reason I decided to have a look.

It's a memorial to the locals who fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

The wreath is old. Clearly they do not get remembered on 11 November. Britain was nominally neutral in the conflict, but in reality the "establishment" favoured the Nationalist side. Franco.

Last year sometime I read a good book about the Scots who fought in Spain. Homage to Caledonia by Daniel Gray.

To quote one of them (John McEwan)

"If I don't go and fight fascism, I'll just have to wait and fight it here".

Clearly he had a much better grasp of international politics than Nevill Chamberlain.

Franco's fascist dictatorship was still in power at the time of my first visits to Madrid & Barcelona in the 70s.