Solidarity Park

Thomas Jobling

Thomas Jobling was born on 31st May 1909 to Thomas Jobling of 7 Nelson Square , Monkwearmouth, it appears that his mother died shortly after, possibly in childbirth.
Thomas Sr was a general labourer working in the shipyards at Monkwearmouth. The 1921 census finds Thomas Sr working as a general labourer for John Blumer and Co of North Dock, Sunderland, but he is shown as ‘out of work’; the scarcity of orders led to the closure of Bulmer’s yard, in July 1922. After leaving School Thomas Jr was employed as a lorry driver and joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1929. Although not a member of any political party Thomas was an anti-fascist. Thomas was part of the crowd that in 1934 disrupted a British Union of fascist meeting in Gill Bridge Avenue in Sunderland, right outside the police station:

At the Sunderland Police Court yesterday afternoon a young man, John Inglebert Theodorson, who described himself as an assistant propaganda officer of the Fascists in Sunderland, summoned Thomas Jobling, also a young Sunderland man, for having assaulted him. It was alleged by the complainant that the defendant butted him and knocked him off a box from which he had been addressing a meeting on the evening of May 9th, on an open space near the police station. Shields Daily Gazette 25th May 1934

The case was dismissed when the magistrate ruled that ‘there had been no deliberate assault’.

Thomas travelled to Spain with the Communist Party North East Coast District organiser, and namesake, Wilf Jobling, they left Newhaven for Dieppe on 22nd January 1937. Thomas was enlisted into the British Battalion on 30th January with ID number 523. His address is given as 28 Firth Square, Ford Estate, Sunderland. Thomas was still training so did not take part in the three-day Battle of Jarama (12th-14th February). Thomas did take part in the assault on 27th February in which Wilf Jobling was killed, this experience and the heavy loss of life seems to have badly affected Thomas, because shortly after this he deserted with three other comrades: Harold Harbury, Thomas James & Ralph Nicholas.

On 7th March 1937 the four men faced a court martial chaired by George Aitken, who had been North East Coast district organiser in 1936 assisting Wilf Jobling. The secretary of the court may also have known Thomas as this was Bob Elliott, the Blyth Councillor and Comitern organiser for the North East of England. The four men were in charged with desertion; they did not have their rifles and were wearing civilian clothes when they were stopped on the road to Valencia. All four pleaded guilty.

Thomas was expelled from the Battalion and sent to a special labour section of the penal battalion. In July 1937 Thomas deserted from the Penal Battalion, he got to Valencia on his second attempt. In August 1937 he was sent home, he was put on a ship heading for Grimsby.

Compiled by Tony Fox