A CAMPAIGN has been launched for a memorial to East Lancashire volunteers who were prepared to sacrifice their lives fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War.

Several were recruited to the International Brigade, in the conflict, including former weaver Freeman Drinkwater who was shot dead while fighting with fellow Brits in Brunette.

But there is no lasting tribute to those who left Burnley and Pendle in 1935 and 1936 to fight Franco’s forces.

Charles Jepson, treasurer of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, said: “These are not soldiers but ordinary men who gave up everything to fight for people they had never met, for a cause they truly believed in.”

Drinkwater, of Valley Street, Burnley, joined up at the age of 23 with Samuel Martin, of nearby Tiber Street.

Both Communist Party members, they entered Spain in secret over the Pyrenees to serve with the Major Attlee Battalion.

He fought at Jamara River, to repel efforts to encircle Madrid, and was then involved in an offensive at Brunetee.

Drinkwater was killed by a sniper just yards from Martin during the battle.

Nineteen-year-old George Buck, from Nelson, also travelled to Spain with Drinkwater and Martin and was later reported wounded.

Frank Welsby, 24, formerly of Rectory Road, had emigrated to Canada in his late teens but returned to Europe to fight with another battalion.

He wrote home to his mother: “If in this struggle I should fall you will have no cause for sorrow or regret.

“Rather pride to know that one of your own flesh and blood fell in order that the common rights of the common people might be materialised.”

Another weaver, John Jolly, of Ann Street, Burnley, was the British Battalion’s quartermaster in Madrigueras and was wounded in service.

But he carried on in the medical corps and was repatriated in 1938.

James Bridge, also of Nelson, took part in the Battle of Jarama and later wrote: “‘VCs don’t count in this war, all we want is to smash fascism forever.”

Relief collections took place in Burnley, backing the republican effort, and the mayor and mayoress donated 12 guineas.

Mr Jepson is behind an exhibition on the International Brigade which has run for the past week at Nelson Library.

He will also be giving a talk at the library on ‘Nelson and the Spanish Civil War’ on Thursday, January 31, at 3.30pm.