Lou Kenton

Lou Kenton (born 1908) is an English potter, who served as an ambulance driver with the International Brigade and is one of its few surviving members.

Early life

Kenton was born in Stepney, East London to a Jewish-Ukrainian family who had escaped the Tsarist pogroms. His father died from Tuberculosis when he was young, and as he left school aged 14 he worked in a paper factory where he first encountered anti-semitism. This led him to join the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1929.

Spain

In early 1937, Lou left Stepney to join the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. His wife, an exiled Austrian nurse from Nazi Germany, shortly followed him. When he arrived at the International Brigades headquarters in Albacete, he applied to join the International Brigade's Medical Unit. It was from there that he spent nearly two years in action as an Ambulance driver on the front lines, as well as distributing medical supplies to hospitals across the country. He left for Britain in late 1938 on an 'Aid for Spain' fund-raising mission to raise money for a new Ambulance but by the time his tour was over, the International Brigades were withdrawn.

Later life

After the International Brigades were withdrawn, Kenton was hugely depressed. One of his missions was to hand the Basque refugees given asylum in the United Kingdom back to the Spanish authorities. It was "the first time I saw the fascist police in their three-cornered hats. All the children were in tears and all of them were hanging on to me as we checked each one and handed them over."

After the Lidice massacre in Czechoslovakia in 1942, Kenton joined the British "Lidice Shall Live" organisation. He was an active member for many years and in the 1990's served as its chairman.

Kenton remained a devout communist, working tirelessly on trade union organisation, unemployed marches and party activities until 1968 when the Prague Spring was suppressed by the Soviet Union. He then joined the Labour Party and remains a member today.

Commemorative potter

From 1980, he produced commemorative pottery for the trade union movement and for radical causes. His work has been commissioned by Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, Tobacco Workers' Union, Society of Graphical and Allied Trades, Trades Union Congress, areas of the National Union of Mineworkers, the People's March for Jobs, the International Brigade, Greater London Council Peace Year, National Council for Civil Liberties, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Greenham Common women's campaign.

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,395345,00.html 'I shall never forget it, as long as I live']
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/galleryguide/0,6191,395635,00.html The Spanish civil war remembered]
* [http://www.art.man.ac.uk/HISTORY/research/workingpapers/wp_50.pdf Untitled dissertation] (many references to Kenton)
* [http://graham.thewebtailor.co.uk/archives/000087.html J to L - Compendium of Communist Biography by surname]
* [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/07/345378.html International Brigade: 70 Years On. London July 15, 2006]
* [http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/IBMT%202004_3.pdf International Brigade Memorial Trust newsletter Issue nine / September 2004 pp4–5]
* [http://calbears.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960204/ai_n14026953 Spain repays its debt of blood and honour]
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/spanjews.pdf Jews Who Served in The Spanish Civil War]
* [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2688486.ece Band of brothers: Seventy years ago, these British volunteers risked their lives to fight fascism. Why has their heroism been overlooked until now?] (Start of seven-page article that includes a profile of Kenton)
* [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2688486.ece?token=null&offset=60 Band of brothers (page 6)]