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The International Brigade of the 1930s was not the first venture of its kind.  Garibaldi’s 1860 campaign to liberate and unify Italy also attracted international volunteers, not least from Britain.  Several hundred, including about 18 from Tyneside, joined a ‘British Legion’ that supported Garibaldi in Sicily and Southern Italy.

Recruited via Joseph Cowen’s Newcastle Daily Chronicle the Tynesiders overcame attempts to block their departure, and played a part in Garibaldi’s advance on Naples to overthrow a distinctively despotic local regime.

One of the group John Eyre Macklin, wrote a vivid account of his experiences in the campaign, and of some of the people he met such as Jessie White Mario, female Radical journalist, a frequent speaker at Newcastle political meetings and known as ’the Florence Nightingale of the Garibaldian army.’

Nigel is a Newcastle City Councillor, chairs the UK Co-operative College and has published several books and articles on North East political history, including an autobiography of Joseph Cowen, and histories of anti-fascism, and anarchist and socialist land colonies.

 Topic: Tyneside Volunteers for Garibaldi’s Army