James BryceBy Eloise Horsfield
SEVENTY-FIVE years after arriving in Spain to help fight Franco, four International Brigade members attended a commemoration event in Madrid yesterday.
Ninety-three-year-old Brit David Lomon came to Spain the day he turned 18 without telling his mother because he “couldn’t just sit by and watch while fascism grew”.
“I’d do it again a thousand times,” he said.
Mr Lomon, along with two Franco-Spanish and an Estonian veteran, ate at a restaurant in Rivas Vaciamadrid before visiting the International Brigade monument in Plaza de Europa.
Around 4,000 British and Irish volunteers, including author George Orwell, were among the estimated 35,000 volunteers from 53 countries who travelled to Spain to fight fascism during the Spanish Civil War.
The group, accompanied by 150 supporters and family members, will have their next stop in Barcelona.
