The Gibbons brothers - still proudly remembered !! WITH UPDATES !!

24/7/2015

DANNY TOMMY JOE GIBBONS INTERNATIONAL BRIGADERS 1936-1938
PAT DOOLEY SPEAKER AT PARLIAMENT HILL EDITOR 1901-1958
THEIR FAMILY PROUDLY REMEMBERS APRIL 1980

That's the inscription on a bench on Hampstead Heath - just a five-minute stroll from Kite Hill, bordering a copse of pine trees, and looking out east to Highgate. My friend Martin Plaut came across this rather out-of-the-way bench while doing his morning sit-ups. It's in some disrepair. He's trying to contact the family to see if they would be on board for a bit of fund-raising to spruce up this rather touching memorial.

The International Brigaders were those left-wingers who went to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. More than 2,000 headed out from Britain - 500 or so never returned. I had the privilege to meet and interview a few of them towards the end of their lives. The International Brigade Memorial Trust keeps their memory and spirit alive - though this modest memorial seems to have escaped the otherwise comprehensive list on their website.

Danny Gibbons, a Scotsman who moved to Camden, was a communist and for a while the political commissar of the British contingent of the Brigades - there's a brief biographical note about him here. He was wounded at Jarama in February 1937 and was sent home to recuperate. He insisted on going back to Spain, was arrested by Franco's troops, and was eventually released in a prisoner exchange involving German and Italian officers. His younger brother Tommy died in Spain, in the battle for Brunete in July 1937.

Joe (his real name was Patrick) volunteered with the American battalion in Spain - there's some details on this site. And there was a fourth brother, John Gibbons, who was apparently refused permission to join the International Brigades - according to some accounts, the CPGB leader Harry Pollitt, said with three brothers risking their lives, it would be wrong to have a fourth Gibbons fighting in Spain. He was, all the same, a very loyal member of the Communist Party and spent many years in Moscow.

Kathleen Gibbons was Danny's second wife, and her maiden name was Dooley. That may be the link with Pat Dooley - about whom I have been able to find out little. (Can anyone help?) A biography of the bohemian inter-war poet Anna Wickham mentions Pat (his real name was Lawrence) Dooley as an activist who made rousing left-wing speech at the top of Parliament Hill in the 1930s and '40s. Strange to think of this as a pitch for outdoor speakers!

I have a feeling that this blog will be returning to the story of the Gibbons brothers ...

UPDATED WITH PAT DOOLEY'S OBITUARY

The comments posted on this blog add valuable information about the Gibbons brothers, but it's only now - in July 2020, so five years after the original post - that I have found out more about the other name commemorated on the bench, Pat Dooley.

Steve Savage very kindly got in touch with an obituary of Pat Dooley which appeared in The Newsletter in February 1958. The Newsletter became the weekly paper of the Trotskyist Socialist Labour League, and this article - initialled 'P.F.' - was almost certainly written by its editor Peter Fryer, a former Communist who was a founder member of the SLL (and who was later expelled from its successor organisation, the Workers' Revolutionary Party).

Steve Savage also shared a link to reminiscences of the Connolly Association, an Irish Republican and left-wing organisation, which also contains many references to Pat Dooley.

AND A NOTE FROM MARIAH WILSON

In December 2020 Mariah Wilson got in touch and with her permission we are posting her note and the document that she sent about her grandmother:

My name is Mariah. I ran across your blog and wanted to reach out, about this post in particular: "The Gibbons Brothers". Thank you so much for posting about this bench, I had no idea it existed! I am actually the granddaughter of Joe Gibbons (Patrick Joseph Gibbons), and am trying to research and gather as much info on him as possible in hopes of one day writing a story about him and my grandmother.

I saw in the comments of the post that Mike Arnott posted about the Gibbons brothers commemoration in Renton (which I hope to visit next year, once Covid restrictions have lifted) and more details about the brothers themselves, including about the torpedo strike on the boat carrying my grandfather. There's more info about that on this website, too, and a picture of my grandfather Joe Gibbons: https://ciudaddebarcelona1937.wordpress.com/

But the story gets even crazier...!

So it's mentioned that Joe helped two other men who couldn't swim get to safety after the ship had been hit. One of those men was Milt Cohen, who went on to be a major political figure in Chicago's left, and went up against McCarthy's HUAC in the 1950s. Milt and my grandfather Joe became close after their ordeal together, nearly losing their lives on that ship.

Back home, Joe had married my grandmother Florence Greenberg (her bio below) shortly before leaving for Spain. They actually married in secret, because she was Jewish and he was Catholic. Well, my grandmother Florence had a sister named Sue. Joe got it in his head that Sue and Milt would be just perfect for each other. Sue had gotten divorced recently (very uncommon in those days), and was looking to find another partner. As soon as Joe was able to, he phoned back to the U.S. from abroad, and told Florence "tell your sister not to get married to anyone! I found the perfect guy for her!" ... well, wouldn't you know it, she and Milt married just a few months after they met, after Joe and Milt returned from Spain. Joe had been right :)

Now, here's the final twist for you:

Across the ocean, on the VERY SAME DAY that my Great Uncle Milt and grandfather Joe almost lost their lives on the torpedoed boat, my grandmother Florence and Great Aunt Sue nearly died also. They were both union activists and organizers protesting at the May 30, 1937 Memorial Day Massacre/ Republic Steel Workers Strike. They spent their day running away from bullets and protecting their fellow activists from the brutal police backlash.

All four of them lived extraordinary lives, fighting for justice, human rights, workers rights, and progressive ideals. I never knew my grandfather, as he died before I was born. I knew my grandmother a bit from my early childhood, but didn't appreciate the extraordinary human being she was until later in my life. You can probably see why I want to write their story one day. It's truly stranger than fiction!

Thanks again for posting the picture of the bench at Hempstead Heath. I just reached out to the park to see if they are still looking for sponsors for the bench.. they may have already torn it down since it was in a bit of disrepair, not sure. Hopefully I am not too late. [The bench is in disrepair and has been removed - the Hampstead Heath authorities are seeking donations which might make it possible to repair or replace the bench - AW]

Mariah Wilson - www.mariahewilson.com

3 Comments

Marlene Sidaway link

26/7/2015 02:51:57

Thanks to Shen for passing this on. I will notify our committee about this and hope we can do something. Marlene Sidaway (IBMT)

Mike Arnott

27/7/2015 01:47:11

Unveiled on Sunday 1 May 2011

It has taken 70 years to happen – but a special tribute will finally be unveiled to five brave Scots volunteers who fought against fascism.
The five, from Renton in Dunbartonshire, made their way to Spain to join the International Brigades to combat General Franco’s fascist uprising against the country’s elected Republican government.
The heroic efforts of brothers Patrick Joseph, Tommy and Daniel Gibbons, along with James Arnott and Patrick Curley are to be recognised at a special ceremony on August 27 when an iron statue in the shape of a Spanish bull will be unveiled in their home town.
Danny was wounded in the Battle of Jamara in February 1937, and was allowed to return home – but he made his way back to Spain again, distressed that his brother Tommy had been killed in the battle for Brunete in July that same year.
He was eventually captured by Franco’s troops at the battle of Calaceite in March 1938.
Kept in filthy conditions in a concentration camp, he and a handful of others secretly combined to keep up the morale of their fellow prisoners.
They were eventually exchanged, in February 1939, for Italian and German prisoners.
Patrick Joseph – ‘Joe’ – the third brother, who volunteered as part of a Chicago-based battalion in Spain, was on a Barcelona-based ship that was torpedoed by an Italian submarine.
Two hundred other volunteers were lost at sea, but Joe bravely kept two colleagues, neither of whom could swim, afloat for hours in the water until they could all be rescued.
He went on to fight the fascists in numerous battles during the Civil War. He was wounded in the arm after a tank belonging to the fascist forces opened fire.
Of the Renton five, James Arnott was repatriated and Patrick Curley was killed at Jarama – the same battle in which Danny Gibbons was wounded.
The statue, which will be sited at the MA Centre in Renton, is the idea of the Renton Community Development Trust.
Drew McEwan, the Trust’s chief executive, who with Archie Thomson and Jim Bollan, a Scottish Socialist councillor, has co-authored a booklet detailing local involvement in the Spanish Civil War, said: “Renton has had an interesting political history – we are still the only area that has returned a Scottish Socialist councillor.
“Long before then, we used to return two Communist councillors on a yearly basis.
“We were investigating the history of Renton and came across the Gibbons family – three brothers who fought in Spain.
There was even a fourth brother, John, who was keen to fight but was refused entry to the International Brigade in Spain.
“We did further research and came across James Arnott then Partick Curley, both from Renton.
“Scots made up about 20% of the Britons who volunteered for the International Brigades in Spain, and 31 came from west Dunbartonshire, including the five from Renton, and another 11 from Alexandria.”
“Others came from Clydebank, Dumbarton, Duntocher and Dalmuir.
“It wasn’t young and impressionable men who volunteered, either,” Drew added.
“Danny Gibbons was 35 and brother Tommy was 34. James Arnott was 29 and Patrick Curley was 47.
“The chances are that some had experienced the First World War, which is still seen as one of the most barbaric wars ever conducted.
“It wasn’t as if they went out to Spain with blinkers on, thinking it would be a romantic experience – that they would go out there for a couple of weeks and come back with a suntan.
“They knew what they were getting into.
“It has been really interesting to do research into this aspect of local history. Bear in mind that some of these men left this area and walked over the Pyrenees to join a war, which is just a remarkable feat.
“What also can’t be forgotten is that desperate pleas by the Spanish Republican government for assistance from the European democracies of Britain and France fell, overwhelmingly, on deaf ears.
“Instead, an agreement was made not to intervene in the conflict, to which Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the USSR all agreed to adhere.
You could get prosecuted for taking part – it was illegal to fight.
“It wasn’t just that you got a bad name. Volunteers who returned from Spain would come back to nothing.
“These men never got the accolades they deserved.
“Whether people agreed or disagreed with the war doesn’t matter – they showed considerable valour in Spain in the fight against fascism.”
The memorial, which has cost an estimated £2000, will commemorate the bravery of all the local volunteers.
“Hopefully it will last for all time, and will be seen as a fitting tribute to the men who wanted to fight the rise of fascism,” added Drew.

27/7/2015 02:45:12

The Bench has now been listed on our Memorials page, and as you see, the Gibbons brothers are commemorated at Renton. I will try and locate the bench tomorrow, can you give me any clue as to where it might be? Near to Kenwood? in front of Kenwood, nearer to Hampstead Nearer to Highgate?
Marlene (President, IBMT)

Andrew Whitehead's
Blog