Nurses Day - Thora Silverthorne

Spain - Nurses Arrested at No10 - 1939

While nurses from Spain distributed leaflets at the entrance to Downing street on 30 January 1939 declaring Neville Chamberlain was responsible for the deaths of men, women and children in Spain.

Two nurses walked up to No 10 and threw red paint over the doorway

The paint was intended to be symbolical of the blood spilt in Spain.

The women were nurses who recently returned from service with the Spanish Republican Forces, one of them Angela Guest is particularly well known for her work, and the other is Eileen Palmer. Both were arrested

The leaflets said
"Chamberlain is guilty of blood that has flown in Spian for two anfd a half years, because the legal Spanish Government has been deprived of the right to buy arms to defend itself against foreign intervention

We British nurses who have served in Spain demand that Spain be given back her right to defend herself. Open the frontier ! send arms to Spain! Save Spain!, Save Britain ! Save Peace !

The nurses shouted "Arms for Spain" as they threw the paint later appeared in Bow Street police Court charged with "insulting behavior" which was later withdrawn , however they were bound over for six months and ordered to pay  5 shillings damages

Formation of SMAC by Dr Charles Brook

Extract from

Making Medical History circa 1946

By Dr Charles Brook (COHSE , GP, LCC member)

The other activity with which the Socialist Medical Association was so closely associated and which, without the help of the Association would never have achieved such success, was the establishment of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee. My friend, Arthur Peacock, has given an excellent account of
the development and the achievements of the Committee in his recently
published book "Yours Fraternally". Let me quote one paragraph.

“One afternoon in July I had a visit from Dr Charles Brook, General Practioner & L.C.C member who was Secretary of the Socialist Medical Association. “Do you think, Charles asked me “it would be a good idea if we Socialist Doctors sent some medical supplies to Spain as a gesture of sympathy and good fellowship”. I told him that I thought it would be magnificent and promised to let him have a room at the National trade Union Club on the following Saturday afternoon so that he and his friends might discuss the project”.

Actually it was at lunch-time on. Friday, July 31^st that I discussed the matter with Clifford Troke, and immediately afterwards there was the conversation with Arthur Peacock. The meeting I convened for the following afternoon by hurriedly written postcards and by telephone calls, was very well attended despite the fact that it was the Saturday prior to August Bank Holiday. (SMAC established 1^st August) , .

After I had made a statement setting out ray reasons for convening the meeting it was there and then decided to constitute "The Spanish Medical Aid Committee" and although I was hopeful that I might then be allowed to retire into the background the Honorary Secretaryship was thrust upon me.

The majority of the Committee were members of the S.M.A. Christopher
Addison was the president, H.B. Morgan as Chairman , and Somerville-Hastings the Vice-Chairman. Among the other medical members were Harry Boyde, Michael Elyan, J.A. Gillison LCC, D’Arcy Hart, Tudor Hart, S.W. Jeger, R.L. Worrall and Prof J. R. Marrack. Non-Medical members included Ellen Wilkinson,, Leah Manning, Isabel .Brown, Arthur Peacock, and the Joint-Treasurers, Viscount Churchill and Viscountess Hastings, (now the Hon. Mrs Wogan- Phillips). Lord Addison was not called upon to take a very active part in the work of the Committee, but he showed great courage when, contrary to the advice tendered by some people in high places, he presided at a great meeting at the Albert Hall in Support of the Work of the Committee.

As Chairman H. B. Morgan proved himself to be an extremely able and tactful negotiator. Being a roman catholic he was able to neutralise the powerful pro-Franco elements in his Church, while as Medical Adviser to the T.U.C. he was an invaluable go-between when certain awkward situations arose.

Somerville-Hastings, I was especially indebted. Many volunteers came into the Committees office to lend a hand, but it was impossible to check their bona-fides and as much of my correspondence was strictly confidential, I was in urgent need of a private secretary. When I put the position to Somerville Hastings, he immediately handed, me £25 on order help defray the cost, without it being a charge on the Committees funds.

Within a few day’s of the Committee being established, the public response was so generous and there were so many volunteers for service in Spain that my original idea of sending some medical supplies was replaced by a far more ambitious project the dispatching of a fully-equipped and adequately staffed Medical Unit to the battle front.

Soon after this project was agreed to, I made up my mind that the first-British Medical Unit had got to be ready to leave by Sunday, 23rd August 1936, and on that day thousands of Londoners were stirred by the sight of a procession of vehicles going from the Committee's Headquarters to Victoria Station, where in the presence of a vast crowd and many London Mayors, Arthur Greenwood and. Alan Findlay, then Chairman of the General Council of the T.U.C. delivered valedictory speeches.

This was just three weeks after the Spanish Medical Aid Committee had been constituted and it was the first real practical demonstration of support for the Spanish Republicans which sympathisers in the country had provided.

I remained as Honorary Secretary, of the Committee until the end of 1936 when George Jeger, now M.P. for Winchester, was appointed full-time Organising Secretary, I was able to relinquish my office,

Spanish Medical Aid Committee estb 1st August 1936

Formation of the British SMAC

Spanish Medical Aid Committee was established on 1st August 1936

The enthusiasm and selflessness of everyone helping was such that in less than two weeks the preparatory work was complete, and on Sunday evening, August 23rd the first British Medical Unit for Spain (The first from any country) left Victoria, led by Viscount Churchill (Hon. Treasurer of the Committee), with Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit as Administrator.

Tremendous interest was aroused by its departure, and great crowds gathered at Victoria Station, 10,000 more marched from Hyde Park and paraded past the young men and women as they stood in Buckingham Palace Road. At the Station the Rt. Hon. Arthur Greenwood, M.P., representing the Labour Party, and Allan A. Findlay, representing the T.U.C. General Council, Lord Latham of the LCC and the Mayors of six London Borough's wished " Godspeed " to the men and women who so courageously were setting out to help the wounded on the battlefields of Spain.

Continuously since then the Committee has carried on its activities. Meetings, demonstrations, social functions have been organised all over the country. A net-work of local committees has been formed to assist with the vital task of rousing public sympathy and raising money.

Over £44,000 has been collected, and it has all been spent supplying the various necessities for which requests have been made by those directing the medical services in Spain. That so large a sum has been collected is a striking

tribute to the feeling of solidarity existing between the people of Spain and Great Britain.

Almost every week ambulances, medical supplies or additional personnel have gone out to the hospitals of Spain.

Wherever help has been sought it has been gladly given; wherever medical aid has been requested it has been promptly sent.

NOTE

SMAC Committee 1937

(Dr Charles Brook (GP & COHSE) as Secretary, Dr Hyacinth Morgan as Chairman, Dr Christopher Addison MP as President, Dr Somerville-Hastings as Vice Chairman, , Isaobel Brown, Lady Hastings, Prof J.R. Marrack, Dr Philip D'Arcy Hart, Ellen Wilkinson MP, Leah Manning Pres of NUT, Arthur Pocock, Lord Farringdon, Frederick Le Gros Clark. Headquarters of SMAC at the Trade Union Club 24 New Oxford Street, London, WC1

From booklet Medical Aid For Spain circa 1937

Spanish Civil War 1937

Labour and Spain.

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF DEMONSTRATIONS 1937

"Freedom, Food and Justice—End Fascist Intervention in Spain," is the slogan of a special Campaign of Mass Demonstrations planned by the Labour Party's Spain Campaign Committee.

The central purposes of the campaign are to demand the withdrawal of foreign troops from Spain and the restoration to the Spanish Government' of its freedom

to buy arms, and to assist in relieving the acute food shortage and the distress which afflicts vast numbers of Spanish refugees.

Demonstrations will be held in Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, South Wales, Leeds, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

In addition a large number of local meetings will be organised at which national speakers will take part.

The campaign will be conducted on a large scale and with intensive effort, and will conclude with- a great central demonstration in London to be held in the Albert Hall on 19th December 1937. The list of speakers will be Mr. George Dallas (Chairman of the National Executive) in the Chair, Mr. Clem. R. Attlee, M.P., Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Stafford Cripps, M.P., Mr. Herbert Morrison, M.P., Mr. Ernest Bevin, Mrs. Barbara Ayrton Gould, and Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P.

Mental Health & Institutional Workers Union Journal September 1937

MH&IWU Conference 1937

Resolution on Spanish Civil War

"That this Annual Conference expresses its abhorrence of the continued participation by organised units of the Fascist and Nazi Forces in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Spanish Rebels; expresses its horror at the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of open villages and towns, as a consequence of which women and children are being slaughtered in the holocaust of war, and demands that the Government shall bring this matter to the notice of the League of Nations with a view to organised intervention [on behalf of the legitimate Spanish Government."

George Gibson General Secretary :In moving this resolution I do not propose to discuss the merits or demerits of the various forms of Government in Spain, or of the differences existing in regard to the question. What I want to do is to express what I think is the Union's unanimous view and the view of every decent- minded person in this country (the opinions of the other type of person are not of much value), that it is a horrible thing that the organised intervention of Fascist countries in the internal affairs of Spain has resulted in the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent women and children.

War, of necessity, is a terrible thing and must, and always will, involve cruel suffering on the part of tile people, but when the modern weapons of destruction are deliberately used against non-combatants, as they were at Guernica and Almeria, it is time for decent people to express their disgust at this method of trying to terrorise one's opponents ; and, whatever be the merits or demerits of the Spanish conflict, it is an undeniable fact that the Government of Spain was the duly elected Government of the people and that those who took up arms against it are, in tact, rebels, whether they have titles, honours, or military distinctions attached to their names. Now, all of us, I believe, wish to see the Spanish Government victorious.

Some may differ on certain aspects of the conflict, but I ask you, whatever your differences may be on this matter, to support the resolution.

Mr. Scovell, (Whitecroft) : I second the resolution and would point out that the fight which the Spanish Government and people are putting up for the maintenance of democratic rule is as much our battle as theirs.

Mr Bond (Springfield, Tooting, London) : We welcome this resolution. Too long has the Spanish Government been left unprotected. The so-called "non-intervention" has, in practice, allowed the Fascist armies to invade Spain. The rebels have been supplied with bombers, machine-guns and war material of all kinds.

The same sort of thing happened in the trouble between China and Japan and, if it is not checked, this Fascist intervention in other countries' affairs will cause war to sweep across Europe like a prairie fire. I believe the same brand of Fascism could come into England. Fascism is not a foreign thing, it is the same all over the world. It now seeks to overthrow the constitutionally elected Government of Spain ; and I will go so far as to say that, if there were a Labour or Socialist Government in this country, determined to carry out its stated programme, Capitalism would not hesitate to resort to Fascism to oust it. I am pleased to see that the National Council of Labour has at last urged action and, believe me, action is needed. Meetings of protest should be held all over the country, in the halls and in the streets, to force the Government to abandon its present one-sided policy of non-intervention, and to restore to the Spanish Republican Government its legal right to buy arms abroad.

Mr Hallinson(St. Bernard's, Southall) : I ask you to accept as an addendum to the resolution after the word " Intervention" in the last line: " On behalf of the legitimate Spanish Government." —(Agreed). It is time our movement became more active in its support of the Spanish Republican Government. I looked through the June issue of our Journal and never a word was said about the Spanish situation, the outcome of which is of such vital importance to peace-loving people. More should be written in the Union Journal about it to create interest among our members and to enlist their support for our comrades fighting the battle of democracy in Spain.

The Resolution was Carried Unanimously.

Mental Health & Institutional Workers Union August 1937

MHIWU later became COHSE and in 1993 Unison

Dr. Charles Wortham Brook

Dr. Charles Wortham Brook, CBE

It is with deep regret that we record the death of Charles Brook, a lifelong fighter for the poor, the rich and the disadvantaged. He felt compassion and concern both for the individual and the group and he had a fierce intolerance of injustice and no time for stupidity. He was described as "a gentle insurgent" and the phrase suited him well.

Charles was born in January 1901 in Lincoln into a comfortably established middle class family of Tory views, his father being an ophthalmologist From his earliest years he was a rebel and his family were shocked when he became secretary of the Cambridge University Socialist Society. When he was a medical student at Bart's he met and married Iris Benyon, a nurse who was herself no mean fighter for women in general and for nurses in particular (NUCO Guild of Nurses & COHSE). Twins followed and later he was to become a devoted grand-father. This was to be a lifelong alliance which provided support and security to each.

In the twenties of this century socialist doctors in Germany and Austria had
already organised themselves into groups several hundreds strong and were influencing public opinion through medico-political discussions and publications. Here however it was not until 1930 that a similar body came into being 'as a result of correspondence between Charles and Dr. Ewald Fabian, a Berlin dentist.

Charles was a busy roan - he was a general practitioner and a London County Councillor - and he was reluctant to agree to Dr. Fabian's suggestion that he should form a similar group here. However he did finally write a letter published in the Daily Herald, inviting doctors "who might be interested in forming a body of socialist doctors" to get in touch with him. As a result a preliminary meeting was held in December 1930 and on November 2nd that year a constitution was adopted at a meeting over which Somerville Hastings, then M.P. for Reading, presided. The founder-members agreed that the name of the body should be the Socialist Medical Association. From the beginning other health workers such as nurses and social workers became members. Both Charles and Somerville Hastings were certain that to be effective the new body must be affiliated to the Labour Party and its constitution was framed in accordance with Labour Party views.

The S.M.A. at once set to work to elaborate a statement of policy on the best way to provide health services free to all at the time of need, and in 1932 the Labour Party Conference passed an S.M.A. resolution calling for a state medical service. The 1934 Conference accepted a document on a National Health Service.

Charles Brook's reluctant initiative had borne rapid fruit. He continued as Hon. Secretary until 1938 when the pressures of his many activities led to his resignation. He remained a Vice-president for the rest of his life and he continued to take a great interest in S.M.A. activities, though of recent years from a distance.

He was a founder member of Spanish Medical Aid in August 1936 which provided invaluable medical help of many kinds to the Spanish Republican Government forces and the International Brigade. Some 20 doctors from Western countries went to Spain and he was also able to help those from Germany and Austria who after Franco's victory could not return to their own countries.

He was at one time a London County Councillor and it was a report of his speech demanding better facilities in Tooting that led to Dr. Fabian's letter.

Later when he was in practice in Eltham he became a Kent County Councillor and leader of the Labour group on it. He had a life-long interest in the theatre and at one time thought of becoming a professional actor.

This account may give some idea of Charles' many interests and activities. Perhaps Ted Willis best summed up his personality when in his appreciation of him in Socialism and Health Jan/Feb 1972 he said "He has based his entire life on the principle that anything that is wrong and anti-human is every-man's business and concern".

Elizabeth Bunbury

SHA newsletter Nov/Dec 1983

Note

The Brooks lived at Mottingdeane, High Road, Mottingham, London, SE9

Wife Iris Beynon organiser NUCO/COHSE

Dr Charles Brook - Making Medical History London 1946

Thora Silverthorne NUCO & Spain 1937

NUCO NURSING NOTE

Miss Thora Silverthorne now matron of the International Brigade Hospital on the Madrid front, continues in her good work. The Spanish officials pay the highest tribute to the English nurses in Spain and we arc proud that Miss Silverthorne is a member of N.U.C.O

NUCO Jounal 1937

Thora Silverthorne - Nurse & Internationa Brigade

Thora Silverthorne

Nurses’ leader and International Brigadier,

Thora Silverthorne was born in Abertillery on the 25th November 1910. She was the daughter of George Richard Silverthorne, a miner at the Vivian & Six Bells Pit and Sarah Boyt of Bargoed. Her early years were spent at 170 Alma Street, Abertillery, she secured a scholarship to Nataglo County School (Hafod) and attended the local Baptist church run by Pastor Rev Ivor Evans.

She joined the Young Communist League at 16 and, when she was old enough, the Abertillery Communist Party. Her father was a founder member of the local Communist Party and active in the miners union. Thora chaired meetings with prominent speakers such as Arthur Horner, the miners’ leader. "Everyone in Abertillery talked politics," she was to say of these times.

With her mother’s early death, as one of seven children, she was forced to leave Abertillery for England. Initially she worked as a nanny for Sutcliffe-Bartlett, the Reading Labour MP, but also fitted in selling the Daily Worker to the local railwaymen.

She then followed her sister into nursing at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and was involved in Communist Party activities in the city. She participated with her close friend Christopher Hill in the October Club. The health needs of the hunger marchers that passed through Oxford on their way to London were tended to by her “helping her self to bandages and dressings on the wards”. She recalled that “Their feet were often in particularly bad state.”In 1935 Thora secured a Sister’s post at Hammersmith hospital and worked closely with Dr Charles Wortham Brook and his wife, also a nurse, Iris.

In 1935 Thora secured a Sister’s post at Hammersmith hospital and worked closely with Dr Charles Wortham Brook and his wife, also a nurse, Iris.

Joined NUCO Guild of Nurses

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War she volunteered to nurse, and was "elected" Matron at Granen hospital, caring for many anti-fascist German soldiers in the Thaelmann Centuria. The International Brigadier, Michael Livesey, died in her - arms a memory she never forgot. Later, she was herself drafted into the International Brigade.

On her return she married Dr Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit, who she had met in Spain, where he was the medical unit's administrator They lived at 12 Great Ormond Street. Loutit was elected as a “unity front” Councillor prior to the War for Holborn, London.

Her involvement as sub editor of Nursing Illustrated led her to establish a nurses union (The National Nurses Association). This was a consciously progressive union for nurses in direct competition with the reactionary (Royal) College of Nursing. The RCN and hospital managers attacked her as “not being a registered nurse” or “paid by Moscow”, during the late 1930s. With the help of Communist Party nurses such as Nancy Blackburn (Zinkin), the Association ran a very high profile campaign to highlight the poor pay and conditions of nurses. The Association latter amalgamated with NUPE. Bryn Roberts, the General Secretary of that union was a native of Abertillery and a man whom Thora admired.

After the war she became a union official in the Civil Service Association. As Secretary of the Socialist Medical Association, she met Attlee and other Ministers to discuss the establishment of the NHS in 1948.

She married Nares Craig (a relative of Lord Craigavon) from Clitheroe, Lancashire a member of the CP’s architect group and retired to Llanfyllin, Powys, North Wales for 25 years. Clive Jenkins and Frank Cousins were regular visitors there. Thora returned to London, to be close to her daughter Lucy Craig/Best (a Haringey Labour Councillor), a few years before her death on 17th January 1999. The funeral service at Marylebone cemetery on 25th January heard `the Valley of Jarama’, `The Internationale’, Cwm Rhondda and a recording of the Welsh hymn “Land of my fathers” by Paul Robeson