Commanders and Commissars of the British Battalion

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Commanding Officers of the British Battalion
Name	Date	Notes
Wilfred McCartney	Dec 36 to 6th Feb 37	Returned to England
Tom Wintringham	6th Feb 37 to 13th Feb 37	Wounded at Jarama
George Aitken	13th Feb 37	Temporary command while Cunningham in hospital
Jack Cunningham	13th Feb 37 to 17th March 37	Injured. Repatriated August 1937
Fred Copeman	17th March 37 to 19th July 37	Replaced when sick
Joseph Hinks	19th July 37 to 12th Aug 37	Temporary command during Battle of Brunete
Peter Daly	12th Aug 37 to 24th Aug	Killed during Aragon offensive, at Quinto
Patrick O’Daire	24th Aug 37 to 29th Sept 37	Sent for training for higher command
Harold Fry	29th Sept 37 to 13th Oct 37	Killed at Fuentes de Ebro
George Fletcher	13th Oct 37 to 6th Nov 37	Temporary replacement
Patrick O’Daire	6th Nov 37 to 9th Nov 37
Fred Copeman	9th Nov 37 to 26th Dec 37	Appendix operation, sent home
Bill Alexander	27th Dec 37 to 17th Feb 38	Wounded in an attack on Segura de los Baons
Sam Wild	17th Feb 38 to 1st Sept 38	Injured on Hill 666.
George Fletcher	1st Sept onwards also deputised for a Sam Wild for a few days in August 1938

Battalion Commissars of the British Battalion
Name	Date	Notes
Dave Springhall	Dec 36 to Feb 37
George Aitken	Feb 37 to 23rd March 37	Promoted to Brigade Commander 13th February 37
Bert Williams	23rd March 37 to 31st July 37	Returned to UK
George Coyle	31st July 37 to 23rd Aug 37
Jack Roberts	3rd Aug 37 to 25th Aug 37
Alex Torrance	25th Aug 37	Killed in action
Jim Bourne	25th Aug 37 to 22nd Sept 37	American, temporary posting
Eric Whalley	22nd Sept 37 to 13th Oct 37	Killed in action
Harry Dobson	13th Oct 37 to 6th Nov 37	Later killed during the Ebro offensive at Gandesa
Walter Tapsell	6th Nov 37 to 31st March 38	Killed at Calaceite, during the Aragon retreat
Thomas Oldershaw	March 1938	While Tapsell in hospital. Missing in action, 16th March
Bob Cooney	1st April 38 onwards

Bibliography:

Richard Baxell, British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades, 1936-1939, London, Routledge/Cañada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain, 2004
Walter Gregory, The Shallow Grave: A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War, London: Victor Gollancz, 1986
Paul Preston, A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War, London: Fontana, 1996.
William Rust, Britons in Spain, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1939
Chris Henry, The Ebro 1938: The Death Knell of the Republic, Oxford: Osprey, 1999.
George Wheeler, edited by David Leach, To Make the People SmileAgain, Newcastle: Zymurgy, 2003.
"From the Rhondda to the Ebro" by Alun Menai Williams, Warren & Pell 2004

Commanding Officers of the British Battalion