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Timothy Harrington at the front of the hunger march in the 1930s. |
Following grandfather’s footsteps
Actor Richard Harrington tells Dan Carrier how he is tracing a war hero’s journey to fight the Fascists in Spain with a TV crew
FOR an unemployed miner from South Wales whose home town was suffering 90 per cent unemployment, Paris was not the most obvious holiday destination in the spring of 1937.
But for 38-year-old Timothy Harrington, the trip to the French capital had nothing to do with ambling along the Seine, climbing the Eiffel Tower or marvelling at the furrowed brows of the gargoyles at Notre Dame.
He was there to meet Communist organisers, get over the Pyrenees into Spain and join the fight against Fascism.
Now Timothy’s story is to be the subject of a major new TV documentary told by his grandson Richard, and featuring the New Journal’s literary editor and former GLC chairman, Illtyd Harrington, Timothy’s son.
Richard is an actor, and has starred in such TV dramas as Spooks, Holby Blue and Bleak House.
Now he is turning his talents to a more serious quest: he wants to discover the story of his grandfather’s mission to reach Spain, his motivation to leave his family behind, the incredible hardship and risks he took while there, and the after effects.
Harrington’s family were Catholic, and his wife a staunch believer. His time in Spain, where he saw action in such battles as the famous Ebro, caused ructions within the family for years, and was not spoken about.
Richard and a camera crew are due to set off from Merthyr in March and head to Paris, then walk across the Pyrenees following the route along old smugglers’ trails that Timothy took.
Timothy came from Merthyr Tydfil, identified by the government as being one of the worst hit of the “distressed areas” – regions where the Depression was most keenly felt. His experience in this politically aware industrial heartland led him to be involved with the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement, and he marched proudly with others to London to highlight the problems they faced.
And Timothy was seen as a figurehead for the Welsh branch of the movement. He had fought in the First World War, been gassed in France, posted to India and Mesopotamia – modern day Iraq – where he had contracted malaria.
After being discharged, he had to face the frequent indignity of having to go to an army pensions board and prove he was ill in order to draw a measly pension.
This, on top of an awareness of the economically polarised society he was living in, made him more and more politically aware.
When he joined the hunger march, Labour politician Stafford Cripps asked him to be photographed at the front, wearing the medals he had won during the Great War. Cripps believed it would help dispel the notion that the hunger marchers were a disorganised rabble intent on overthrowing the government.
Timothy took some persuading: he hated the mindless slaughter his medals were a reminder of.
So it seems now a natural progression that as the Spanish Civil War unfolded Timothy should join his Iberian brothers in the battle against reaction and Fascism.
It was a grey February morning in 1937 when Timothy rose from his bed and left a note for his family saying simply “gone to Spain”. He met eight others, caught a train at Merthyr and headed for London. To avoid arousing suspicion they split up and made their way individually on to Paris. Once there, they met again and were fed in a café.
They were warned that if they saw a man walking past clutching a large bunch of bananas they needed to leave immediately as the place would be raided.
These were days of political conspiracy and oppression – the French and British, sympathetic to Franco’s illegal and murderous rebellion, had signed a non-aggression pact and were stopping nationals from heading south to join the fight.
Like so many of those who fought in Spain, Timothy was handed a pair of rope-soled sandals and then led over the mountains. And the nine saw active service, fighting at Brunete and the Ebro.
The documentary about Timothy, who died in 1973, age 74, will also feature footage from a two-hour long interview with Illtyd, recalling his father’s work in the war, and how it felt for a seven-year-old to wake up one morning and discover his father had gone to fight.
Film-maker Dewi Gregory says: “The story of the Welsh Brigaders has not been told fully, and this is the chance to try and understand what volunteers had to go through to fight for their beliefs.”
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