Joseph Foster
Joseph Kavanagh Foster was born on 25th January 1899 to John and Margaret (Nee Kavanagh) Foster of 27 Vine Street. John was a seaman he was a labourer when not at sea, he was later listed as a Boiler maker in 1923. Joe was 17 when he joined the 1st Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, he saw service in Italy from November 1917 until April 1918 when the Battalion was transferred to the Western Front. The Battalion took part in the assault on the Hindenburg Line, Joe however was not with the Battalion at this time as he had been invalided out of the Army on 10th September 1918; he had been severely wounded on the left side losing the use of this arm.
Like many ex-servicemen Joseph found it difficult to find work during the post war depression, the 1921 census finds him listed as a dockyard labourer at the Pallion Yard, South Dock, Sunderland, but he is shown as ‘out of work’. On 6th January 1923 Joe married Margaret Dixon and they lived at 6 Carter Street near Crowtree in the town centre.
Joe joined the Communist Party in 1930 and was active in the National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM), helping organise the Sunderland contingent in the 1932 National Hunger March. In September 1933 Joe was part of the crowd which shouted down the Fascist speaker outside the Boilermakers Hall in West Sunniside, the next month Joe was elected as the councillor for the Sunniside East Ward. In January 1934 he gave a speech to the Sunderland Contingent of the National Hunger March before they assembled in Newcastle. He was part of the crowd when the ‘Assistant Fascist Propaganda officer’, John Engelbert Theodorson, was prevented from speaking outside the Police Station on Gill Bridge Avenue in Sunderland in May 1934.
Joe managed to get to Spain without Special Branch knowing, he enlisted in the British Battalion on 9th July 1937 his trade is listed as Blacksmith with his wife living at 6 Carter Street. Joe was not with the British Battalion during the fighting at Brunete, he was at the officer training school in Pozorrubio de Santiago where Arthur Olorenshaw assessed him as good. Joe was with the British Battalion when it captured Quinto with heavy losses. A September Medical Report shows:
FOSTER Joseph K
English. Age 46. Blacksmith, elementary education. Communist Party. From England 9.7.37. Physical wreck with deformed arm. Was sent to Benisa by Med.Com.
Joe discharged himself from Benicassim hospital, as the men said he ‘deserted to the front’, but his arm meant it was not safe for him to be at the front; he was repatriated and arrived back in the UK on 28th December 1937.
Compiled by Tony Fox
Solidarity Park 