Enid Ramshaw
Enid was born on 25th January 1913 to Andrew and Sarah Ramshaw of 3 Bowlby Street, Houghton le Spring , Andrew was a hewer working for Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries at Houghton Colliery. Enid was the only girl in the family, with four elder brothers. None of the boys followed their father down the pit, and Enid trained to be a nurse; prior to Spain she worked in Wickham as a District Nurse and Midwife. Enid Joined the Communist Party in 1936.
Isobel Brown, a Communist Party Executive Party member from South Shields played a leading role in the setting up of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee (SMAC). When the Spanish Civil War broke out the SMAC was swiftly established and within weeks had organised volunteers and raised money for a fully equipped Ambulance unit; it left for Spain in August 1937; one of the first nurses to travel to Spain was Winifred Wilson, a Scottish born volunteer who was working with Enid in Newcastle.
Eventually the Spanish Medical Aid Committee accepted her request to go to Spain, there is a suggestion she travelled to Spain in 1937 but we have no records for this, documents show she was employed as a nurse in the Republican Medical Service from August 1938 to her repatriation in January 1939.The policy of non-intervention ensured that medical services in Spain were lacking equipment and supplies. Nurses describe the primitive conditions: instruments sterilised in kettles on primus stoves, car batteries used for lighting and operations carried out without anaesthetics. When German and Italian aircraft targeted Forward medical stations and ambulances the red crosses were removed, and movement was restricted to after nightfall. Despite the severe limitations the Republican medical services managed remarkable achievements and numerous breakthroughs in treatment.
Enid was repatriated just in time to attend the commemorative rally for the North East International Brigade volunteers on 15th January 1939 at Newcastle City Hall, which was attended by over 2,000 people.
Like many who had served in Spain on her return home she frequently addressed meetings of the Aid Spain movement and the Tyneside Foodship Committee which were continuing to Support the Spanish Government and the Basque Child refugees in the North of England.
Compiled by Tony Fox
Solidarity Park 