Clive Branson

Clive Ali Chimmo Branson (1907 – 25 February 1944) was an English artist and poet, and an active communist in the 1930s. A number of his paintings are in the Tate Gallery. His wife was Noreen Branson (16 May 1910 – 25 October 2003). Their daughter is the artist Rosa Branson (born 1933).

Life

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He was an active recruiter for the International Brigade, and himself fought in the Spanish Civil War from January 1938, being captured at Calaceite on 31 March 1938. As a prisoner of war at the Nationalist camp of San Pedro de Cardeña, he painted and sketched the camp and many of its inmates, at the request of the authorities; some of this work survives in the Marx Memorial Library in London.[1]

He married Noreen Browne in 1931. Their daughter Rosa Branson was born in 1933. He died in action in Burma on 25 February 1944, where he was serving as a Sergeant in the British Army, as part of the 54th Training Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps.[2]

Branson was killed commanding an M3 Lee tank of B Squadron, 25th Dragoons. He was hit a glancing but fatal blow on the back of the head by a Japanese anti-tank shell near Point 315 at the end of the Battle of the Admin Box. Branson was a popular man in the unit and his crew "were inconsolable".[3] His friend, the composer Bernard Stevens, dedicated his 1945 Symphony of Liberation to the memory of Branson.[4]

Sources

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Notes

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  1. ^ Baxell, Richard (2012). Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism. London: Aurum Press. p. 448. ISBN 978-1-84513-697-0.
  2. ^ Branson, Noreen (1997). History of the Communist Party 1941–51. London: Lawrence & Wishart. p. 55. ISBN 0-85315-862-2.
  3. ^ Holland, James (2016). Burma '44. London: Corgi. pp. 359–60.
  4. ^ Andrew Burn. Notes to Classic Widows, Chandos CD 7008 (1995)
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  • Clive Branson works at the Tate gallery [1]
  • Feature on Clive and Rosa Branson [2]