‘My father was very cool -he volunteered to fight fascism in Spain’ | Manchester News

The daughter of a Manchester man who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War has reflected on his “incredible feat of solidarity” as her family is set to become Spanish citizens.

The Spanish government has granted citizenship to 170 descendants of volunteers in the International Brigades in recognition of their fight against fascism.

Sam Wild from Manchester joined the International Brigades and fought in the Spanish Civil War, which took place between 1936 and 1939.

Mr Wild’s daughter Dolores Long, whose son has also been granted citizenship, said her father had been “very brave”.

“To volunteer to go and fight in another country for your principles is an incredible feat of solidarity and a quite extraordinary thing to do,” she said.

“These were people who didn’t have to, but they felt that it was important to do that.”

More than 30,000 volunteers from all over the world left their homes and lives to fight fascism in a country other than their own and were known as the International Brigades.

The Spanish Civil War ran from 1936 to 1939 and saw right-wing Nationalists, led by General Franco, fight against the left-wing Republicans.

Germany and Italy supported the Nationalists and the USSR supported the Republican forces.

The British government did not want the Spanish Civil War to escalate into a Europe-wide conflict and so signed up to the Non-Intervention Committee, but some people ignored this and volunteered to fight in Spain.

“They believed that if fascism wasn’t stopped, and if democracy was at stake, they had to do something,” Ms Long said.

Sam Wild was a working class man born in Ardwick in Manchester.

He joined the International Brigades in 1936 and made a huge impression, rising through the ranks to become the last commander of the British Battalion of the International Brigades.

“For somebody who’d left school at 14, when I met Brigadiers, they would speak of him with immense respect,” Ms Long added.

“He was very brave. He would never expect his men to do anything that he wouldn’t do. He led from the front.”

They lost the war, with Franco remaining in power until his death in 1975.

Now, decades later and under a new law, descendants of volunteers can apply for Spanish citizenship.

Ms Long said while all the Brigadiers have now died, the gesture from the Spanish government had made their descendants “very, very proud”.

Reflecting on what her father would have thought she said:

“He was a very cool man, my dad.

“He might not say anything but I think he would be delighted.”