A MEMORIAL lecture to a former junior doctor in Blackburn, who fought Franco’s Fascists, will have a distinctly Celtic feel this year.

Dr Len Crome worked as a GP in the town, after arriving in the UK from his native Latvia and studying initially in Edinburgh.

But after spending some time in general medicine in East Lancashire, and troubled by the rise of the far-right n Spain, he answered the call to join a Scottish ambulance unit on the Republican side.

Later he would see action on the frontline in Madrid and become chief medic for the 35th Division.

His return to this country saw him join the Communist Party and eventually relocate to London, where he became an expert in neuropathology.

Several fighters from East Lancs trod a similar path during the same conflict, including the likes of Frank Drinkwater, of Valley Street, Burnley, who lost his life to sniper's bullet, aged 23, at the Battle of Brunete

Each year now a memorial lecture has been held in Dr Crome's honour by members of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, of which he served as chairman for a number of years.

And for 2020 Dr Crome's alma mater, Edinburgh University, will be the site for the gathering, under the title of 'Scotland and the Spanish Civil War'.

The invited speakers for the March 21 conference will include Fraser Raeburn, an historian and author of the upcoming book 'Scots and the Spanish Civil War', and Daniel Gray Writer,a TV presenter and author of 'Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War'.

Campaigners in East Lancashire have lobbied for a permanent local memorial to Frank Drinkwater and other International Brigade recruits, such as Nelson's George Buck and John Jolly, each wounded in battle. Other similar plaques can be found in Bolton, Preston, Oldham and Wigan.