Spain grants citizenship to descendants of civil war’s International Brigades

Len Crome, fourth from right, became the chief medical officer for the brigades by 1938. Photograph: Peter Crome

The Spanish government has granted citizenship to 170 descendants of volunteers in the International Brigades in recognition of their fight against fascism during the Franco dictatorship that followed the civil war.

An estimated 32,000 volunteers from around the world joined the anti-fascist brigades during the civil war, including approximately 2,500 men and women from Britain and Ireland, of whom 530 were killed.