(1) Will Paynter, My Generation (1972)

I can recall a visit by a henchman of Mosley named Moran, who came with his van to Tonypandy. There was a spontaneous massing of people as soon as he arrived and he was forced to leave, but not before the angry crowd did battle with this blackshirt troop. Some thirty-six Rhondda men and women were sent for trial, many of them receiving gaol sentences, including a very close friend of mine, Harry Dobson.

 

(2) Congress of the South Wales District of the Communist Party of Great Britain (February 1937)

This Congress sends its greetings to the remaining Taff Merthyr prisoner, Will Richards and to our comrades of the Rhondda, Harry Dobson, Sam Paddock and Arthur Griffiths who are imprisoned for their anti-Fascist activities.

 

(3) Hywel Francis, Miners Against Fascism (1984)

Harry Dobson of Mid-Rhondda who, amongst the Welshmen, best combined the qualities of courage under fire, coolness and shrewdness in leadership with a profound political understanding.... He served with distinction at Brunete, Quinto, Belchite, Mediana, Huesca, Teruel, Caspe and Grandesa. On one occasion he succeeded in escaping from captivity. Finally, having become a Political Commissar of the Major Attlee Company, he took part in the Ebo offensive during which he was fatally wounded on 28 July 1938.

 

(4) Morris Davies, interview (12th May 1969)

The most important military experience for me was the Ebro offensive in the Summer of 1938. It was the biggest and last action for the International Brigades... I was given orders to capture a ridge. As I advanced with six other men we were peppered with enemy fire. We would not have achieved our objective had not Harry Dobson of the Rhondda given us cover-fire. Harry and I were caught by shrapnel. He insisted that his wound was not as bad as mine and... that I should be taken back on a stretcher first. I was taken back across the river to Cherte. Harry was removed later but he died.

 

(5) Leah Manning, report to the Spanish Medical Aid Committee from Catalonia (September 1938)

I suppose that in all the history of modern warfare there has never been such a hospital. It is the safest place in Spain, beautifully wired for electric lights and with every kind of modern equipment. This hospital is evacuated twice a day. It is tragic to add that a large proportion of the evacuations are by death, because only the gravest cases are brought here from the front, and the only ones who remain for longer than the first day or two are abdominals and serious amputations.

Patience Darton and Ada Hodson were working there when we arrived. Patience was just coming on duty for the night and as we went into the cave, the stretcher bearers brought in an English comrade from the British Battalion who was gravely wounded in the abdomen. He had had his spleen removed and Reggie Saxton had given him a blood transfusion. As I stood by he opened his eyes and spoke my name. I recognised him as a comrade whom I had met at a by-election in South Wales, a miner from Tonypandy named Harry Dobson. Dr. Jolly told me that it was not possible that he could live in fact they thought only a few hours, so I determined to stay by him until the end. Actually, it was fifteen hours before he passed away but I did not leave him during that time and he seemed very happy to have me there.

 

 

Miners Against Fascism

My Generation