Robert Brown
On 26th January 1906 Robert Brown was born to Robert and Annie Brown of 2 Kirklea Road, Houghton le Spring, he was the fourth of what would eventually be nine children. Robert Sr was employed as a hewer at Shotton Colliery. The 1921 Census finds the family at 5 Hopper Square, Houghton Le Spring. Robert and his four sons, including young Robert, are working at the Houghton Colliery for Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Ltd; Robert Jr is employed as a ‘coal miner, driver’.
In the aftermath of the 1926 General Strike and subsequent miners’ lockout many Durham miners moved out of the area to find employment. Robert relocated to area between the South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire coalfields. In 1936 he gives his address as 19 Essex Road, Bircotes, Harworth; The Harworth Colliery is just South of Doncaster but is a part of the Nottinghamshire coalfield. Robert joined the Communist Party in 1936 and on 16th May 1937 he arrived in Spain, enlisted into the British Battalion as number 1058. He gives his profession as a miner.
Robert was not with the Battalion for very long, because just four weeks after his arrival in Spain he was wounded in the left leg during the Battle of Brunete, he was taken to the Castillo Hospital in Murcia and on his recovery was placed in the Auto-park at Castelldefells as a truck driver. Robert remained in the motor pool for the rest of his time in Spain. Unlike a number of his comrades in the Auto-Park Robert was Repatriated with the British Battalion, arriving back at Victoria Station on 7th December 1938.
Compiled by Tony Fox
Solidarity Park 