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Closed 31/08/2022

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£6,683
raised of £5,999 target by 169 supporters

    Weʼve raised £6,683 to fund a memorial for the men from Stockton on Tees who volunteered to defend democracy & fight fascism in Spain from 1936 to 1939.

    Funded on Wednesday, 31st August 2022

    Don't have time to donate right now?

    Story

    **PICTURE IS NOT THE FINAL IMAGE, NAMES TO BE CONFIRMED**

    I'm not sure that anything has moved me as much as The Young'uns The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff which tells the tale of Johnny who was born in Stockton in 1919 and was raised by his grandmother.

    During the Great Depression he begged for bread on the streets and outside the factory gates in the town, hoping the workers had saved anything from their lunch boxes for the starving kids waiting outside.

    At the age of 14, he got a job in the steel rolling mills working 12 hours a day but an industrial accident left burns on his hands and back - and after weeks in hospital, he discovered his job had gone to someone else.

    Out of work and too young to claim dole, he joined the hunger marchers leaving the North-east and walking 240 miles to London and sleeping rough on the Embankment when he got there.

    Meeting Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany led him to oppose the rise of fascism in Britain, most significantly in 1936 at Cable Street in London’s east end, where a march by Oswald Mosley and his followers was forced back.

    Johnny then joined up to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, he was wounded on several occasions and even temporarily blinded. The Second World War saw him sign up again and fight in Africa and Italy and being awarded the bronze star during World War II.

    The inequality he witnessed in London changed the way he saw the world. He campaigned for equality and justice for the rest of his life.

    Johnny died in 2000 and is buried in Somerset and I and many others want a memorial for Johnny and the other men of Stockton on Tees who volunteered to defend democracy and fight fascism in Spain from 1936 to 1939.

    The Brigaders I know of so far are -

    George Bright - Thornaby

    William Henry Carson - Stockton

    Wilfred Cowan - Stockton

    Otto Estensen - Thornaby

    Joseph Myles Harding - Thornaby

    John Eddy Longstaff - Stockton (Johnny's son Duncan is a mine of information)

    Patrick Joseph Maroney - Stockton

    Bert Overton - Stockton

    If you have any information or can point me in any directions I need to be, please share.

    Thank you

    John

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    John Christie

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      4 years ago

      John Christie started crowdfunding

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      Page last updated on: 8/13/2022 20.48

      Supporters

      169

      • John Clifford

        John Clifford

        Aug 13, 2022

        Good luck.

      • MH Library, Minnesota USA

        MH Library, Minnesota USA

        Aug 8, 2022

        Thank you for putting thus all together. Keep our library in mind REGARDING information or assistance regarding the Spanish Civil War. Todd Powell, director, Military History Library

        £20.00

      • Mikko Ylikangas

        Mikko Ylikangas

        Jul 31, 2022

        For a copy of Tony Fox's book and the memorial.

        £30.00

      • IBMT-Durham Gala

        IBMT-Durham Gala

        Jul 24, 2022

        £60.00

      • Anonymous

        Anonymous

        Jul 20, 2022

        £25.00

      • Conyers School

        Conyers School

        Jul 10, 2022

        Purchase of a copy of I Sing of My Comrades

        £10.00

      • Anonymous

        Anonymous

        Jun 16, 2022

        £12.10

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