At the end of 2013, Rob and I were asked by local folk activist Alison Macfarlane to play at an evening at The Maltings Arts Theatre in St Albans to raise funds for the casting of a bronze statue in honour of local resident, Thomas Watters. As mentioned in our blog from that event, Thomas left his job as a Glasgow city bus driver in 1936 to serve as an ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War and, when the war finished, spent the remainder of his life in St Albans.
It is pleasing to report that sufficient monies were eventually raised to honour this brave man with a statue, and this was put on public display in November 2014 by the Museum of St. Albans alongside an exhibition on the background to the Spanish Civil War and the role played in it by the British Battalion of the International Brigade
Having been honoured once with the invitation to play at the start of the fund-raising process, it was a double honour to be asked by Alison to return and play at an event to mark the end of an exhibition where Thomas’ new statue took pride of place. It was nice to see Linda Fryd again, who also played at the initial Maltings fund raiser. Sadly, the third act from that evening, GBH, were unable to make it this time which was a pity as Rob and I had enjoyed their set enormously when we first saw them.
In addition to the area for the exhibition itself, staff at the Museum of St. Albans had made a medium sized room at the back of the exhibition space available for the commemoration. They also kindly agreed to extend their working Sunday to keep the museum open and support the event. Alison and friends provided refreshments and the room soon filled to bursting with friends and neighbours of Thomas, friends and admirers of the sculptor Frank Casey, and supporters of the International Brigade Memorial Trust.
The evening proceeded with a mixture of speeches and music. Alison played some lovely tunes and Linda provided an excellent set of songs appropriate to the evening. Our own set focussed naturally on stories of the Spanish Civil War and the evacuation of the Basque children, interspersed with a range of Spanish tunes. Frank Casey closed the evening with a moving speech telling of how he had first met Thomas and how Thomas’ humanity and wisdom had moved him deeply.
At time of writing, the exact nature of what will now happen with Thomas’ statue is unclear. We certainly hope that the local council finds a suitable place in the town to exhibit the statue, somewhere where it can be viewed and remind local people of the courage of one of its citizens in facing down the threats of fascism.
Many thanks go to Alison and her friends and to the staff at the Museum of St Albans for all their hard work in mounting this very worthwhile event. Thanks go also to all those who helped raise money to support the making of this important statue. Finally, thanks go to sculptor Frank Casey for giving his skills to make this statue that helps us all remember the bravery of Thomas Watters.
A picture of Frank Casey’s sculpture can be seen at: http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/sites/international-brigades.org.uk/files/field/image/WattersSculpture.jpg
