Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World

How my grandmother welcomed Basque child refugees

A group of Basque children, refugees from the Spanish civil war, are pictured on the sea front at a holiday camp at St Mary's Bay, Kent, in 1937.
A group of Basque children, refugees from the Spanish civil war, are pictured on the seafront at a holiday camp in St Mary's Bay, Kent, in 1937. Photograph: Reg Speller/Getty Images

Peter Howarth refers to local support for Basque children in Shipley in 1937, including in a letter to a local newspaper (Letters, 14 July). I write on behalf of my mother Ruth Hill, aged 94, whose own mother, Constance Hill, wrote that letter. She went on to become a town councillor representing Shipley, and welcomed some of the Basque children into her own home. My mother clearly recalls this time – how they sat together eating boiled eggs, and how the children enjoyed playing with her doll.
Rachel Williams
Coventry

• Congratulations to Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix on winning their historic silver diving medal at the World Championships (Toulson and Spendolini-Sirieix win landmark world championships silver, 16 July). And apologies that it was considered necessary to include a reference to the TV-famous father of one of them. Women still being defined by their male relatives, I see.
Sue Ball
Brighton

• Does Kemi Badenoch understand that home is not a safe place for all young people (Teachers in England will have to tell parents if children question their gender, 17 July)?
Fran Martin
Barnstaple, Devon

• Re the University Challenge revamp (TV review, 17 July), while going to the expense of building a new set, could the producers not also have moved it to a larger studio, negating the need for one team to sit on top of the other?
Graeme Innes-Johnstone
Elland, West Yorkshire

• Surely the film critic Derek Malcolm’s fascinating, fabulous and occasionally far-fetched life warrants a film (Obituary, 17 July).
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.