Tom Duncombe's story - a local Spanish Civil War International Brigade volunteer

Following our piece on West Ham-based members of the International Brigade, volunteers who fought for the Republicans against the fascist military usurpers, we have uncovered a more detailed biography of one of the featured members, thanks mainly to the efforts of his nephew to preserve his memory. He provided us with treasured family photographs, documents, and memories to tell Tom’s story. It is a fascinating tale.

 

The Spanish Civil War

By way of background, a Republican government was democratically elected for the first time in Spain in early 1936. Elements of its armed forces’ officer corps found this objectionable and began a military uprising against it in July that year.

For the most part, democratic countries in Europe looked the other way and refused to send troops to defend the young democracy. Fascist countries, like Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, got involved, arming and physically supporting the emerging Junta, which was soon to be led by the young military officer Francisco Franco, despite having signed a non-intervention pact with Britain and France.

Appalled at the prospect of another fascist government emerging in Spain and their own government's inaction in resisting it, supporters of the Republican government from around the world flocked to Spain to defend the fledgling democracy. They were ill-equipped and, for the most part, lacked training, but formed themselves into International Brigades.

Our previous article (see here) featured 16 men with West Ham links who enlisted in those Brigades. This is the story of one of them.

Tom Duncombe 1913 – 1938

A portrait of Tom Duncombe

Tom was born in West Ham and listed his address as 37 Rosher Road, Stratford, when he enlisted. A Rosher Close still exists nearby, close to Carpenters Road.

There was a house fire on Carpenter's Road when Tom was a teenager. Aided by a policeman, Tom climbed onto an adjoining roof, smashed a window, rescued a young child, lowered it into the policeman’s arms, and then climbed down himself.

The policeman and child had their photograph published in the Stratford Express, and the policeman received a medal for bravery – but Tom did not get a mention!

Tom and his brothers, Charlie, Joe, and Harry, became card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the 1930s, and held the red flag in the infamous Battle of Cable Street, in October 1936, opposing the march of Mosley’s fascists into the East End (see family photo).

 

Tom, holding the Communist banner (underneath the "ST"), attending anti-Mosley march in Cable Street, October 1936)

The Communist Party urged its members to join the International Brigades, and despite pleadings from his brothers and father (a gunner during World War One) to not do so, Tom enlisted.

He attended a rally at Trafalgar Square, where he was approached to enlist (which was illegal at the time) and quickly signed up. He was told to take a specific train from Victoria to Dover, and in a scene that seemed straight out of a cheesy spy movie, was instructed to have a packet of Woodbine cigarettes sticking out of his breast pocket, as a form of recognition.

Also at Trafalgar Square was Pablo Picasso, who was quickly sketching drawings to raise money for the International Brigades. Tom bought two—of Lenin and Stalin (he mentions them in a letter to his mother, dated February 28, 1938, which still exists—see below). After the war, his brothers asked their mother what she had done with them. She replied: “When it was confirmed that he had died, I burned them, along with his other useless possessions”!

Several days after his recruitment in Trafalgar Square, Tom travelled to Dover, sporting his Woodbine packet, and was approached and given tickets to his onward journey to Spain.

A packet of Woodies - the secret sign!

 

He described his journey, in the first surviving letter to his mother, dated 19 February 1938: “I had a rough crossing going over, but everything is alright in gay Paree now. I’ve been here a day or two, but will be moving out tomorrow.”

He apologized for not saying his farewells before he left England:

Tom's first letter home - from Paris

 

I’m sorry I could not say goodbye to you, I could not get myself to do it, but you will understand the reasons I came out here … Mum, you know no one made my mind up for me to come out here, so don’t make a fuss. I came here of my own free will.

International Brigade (IB) records show Tom arrived in Spain on 25 February and joined the International Brigade on the 27th, becoming part of the British Battalion at Albacete, which is halfway between Madrid and the Mediterranean coast.

He was killed in action within six weeks. 

Tom’s last surviving letter to his mother was written the day after he joined the IB. The address he gave for himself was 270 Plaza del Allazona, Albacete. Much of the letter’s content is personal and family-related. Still, his fierce anti-fascism and determination to fight for freedom and democracy stand out, as some of these extracts show:

The last the family heard from Tom

 

Mum, don’t shed any tears, you should be proud that you have not brought up a coward …I am out here to stop murder, not only of the Spanish people, but people throughout the whole world … The fight against fascism is a fight against war.

Well I hope Harry still has the Daily Worker every day because you will find more news about this war than I can tell you.

I want Joe to put my two pictures on the wall, you know Lenin and Stalin. (see story of their origin and fate, above).”

It seems that he would have been sent to the Aragon front, where the Republicans were resisting the military fascists’ advance toward Catalonia. By this point, he would have had little to no training. Almost every available man, whether sick, wounded, or unprepared, was pushed to defend Republican towns and territory.

It appears probable that he was killed during the First Battle of Gandesa, which occurred in early April. Nationalist troops advanced toward Catalonia, while Republican forces retreated. The XV International Brigade was pushed back to Gandesa and was determined to defend it. Despite the bravery of British volunteers, the town fell on 3 April, and 140 members of the British and American International Brigades were captured. Tom seems likely to have been among them.

"Finding a brother who fell at the Elbro" - picture courtesy of International Brigade Memorial Trust

 

The resistance of those IB members allowed the Republican forces to regroup and move supplies and troops across the Ebro River for the next phase of defending democracy. A comrade of Tom’s met up with his family members in the early 1950s, passed on a few possessions, and shared some memories. Among those was a mention that, although they were both injured during the battle, they both swam the Ebro (Tom had won swimming medals for West Ham before the war), helping comrades who couldn’t swim get across. This comrade survived the Civil War, though Tom sadly didn’t.

Surviving International Brigade records suggest that the last mention of him was “’Missing’ Aragon”, March 1938. The family has subsequently acquired a copy of his death certificate (reproduced below). 

 

Tom's death certificate, from the Republican forces

The image is faint, but a transcription reads:

Mr Antonio Gordon Garcia, Colonel of the Artillery of the Sub-secretariat  of the Ministry for War for National Defence:

Certified: Thomas Duncombe, of English nationality, born in England on the 14^th January 1913, a voluntary fighter at the order of the Government of the Spanish Republic, in the XV Brigade, fell in a sector of Gandesa, on the 3^rd April of the current year, as a result of wounds received in action.

And for this purpose, this document is issued in Barcelona on the 7^th December 1938.

Tom’s uncle, Mike, the source of the family story told here, says: “I have no knowledge of his fighting, and little other memories of him (Mike was born after Tom was killed). His brothers rarely spoke about him other than to say: “He died for his beliefs, fighting fascists with the International Brigade”.

Footnote. Huge thanks to Tom’s nephew and former Forest Gate resident, Mick Duncombe, who lived in Albert Square, Stratford, for the first 25 years of his life, for sharing much of the above with this site.