Following the runaway success of our away kit since 2018, CCFC members voted to use some of the proceeds from sales for the creation of a permanent memorial to those who travelled from Newham to fight fascism in the 1930s.
In 2019 we first tried to have this in West Ham Park, but our proposal was rejected by the City of London Corporation.
After securing the Old Spotted Dog Ground in 2020, the plan shifted to having a memorial inside our ground, but a combination of the pandemic and then the need to have the OSD ready for men’s and women’s first team games meant a further delay.
However, after a year of planning, we are delighted to announce that the granite has been ordered, a stonemason has been commissioned and the Newham International Brigades memorial will be unveiled on Saturday, April 26 2025, just before the last CCFC Men’s First Team league game of the season.
The memorial stone includes a poem by David Marshall, an International Brigades volunteer who was wounded at Cerro de los Ángeles near Madrid and repatriated in January 1937. A skilled theatre designer and carpenter, he later worked with Joan Littlewood’s company when they moved to Stratford East Theatre.
David died in 2005 but his widow Marlene, who still lives on Reginald Road in Forest Gate and is president of the International Brigades Memorial Trust, will attend the unveiling in April. The Old Spotted Dog Ground Trust intends to offer commemorative beer cups for sale that include David’s poem (see box below) and we are inviting a number of trade unions to bring their banners.
April 26 also marks the anniversary of the ‘carpet bombing’ of Guernica by combined German, Italian and Spanish fascist forces, which became the subject of Picasso’s famous painting and finally convinced the British government to allow refugee children to travel to Southampton. A number of these children later went on to become professional football players in England and Spain.
Watch for further updates in the coming months and keep April 26 free – it is likely to be a very moving day.
Madrid the magnet that drew us all
Along slow roads to Spain– at last a star
For desperate men sensing the gathering storm
And we that fought to warn a watching world
Were called false prophets by appeasers
Yet we fought for the poor of the worldDavid Marshall 1916-2005