Felicia Mary Browne (18 February 1904 – 25 August 1936) was an English artist and leftist. She was the only British woman combatant and first British volunteer to die in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

.Tom Buchanan, "The Lost Art of Felicia Browne", ''

History Workshop Journal The ''History Workshop Journal'' is a British academic history journal published by Oxford University Press. ''History Workshop'' was founded in 1976 by Raphael Samuel and others involved in the History Workshop movement. Originally sub-titled "A ...

'', Autumn 2002, (p. 180-201) Her body was not recovered.

Early life and education

Felicia Mary Browne was born at

Weston Green Weston Green is a small suburban village and a ward in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey. This area was, until 1901, a part of Thames Ditton with which it remains contiguous and associated. Weston Green is also contiguous with Esher, which provi ...

Thames Ditton Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cross ...

, Surrey, on 18 February 1904. She was the third daughter and the fourth of five children born to Edith (''née'' Johnston) (1875–1931), an actress and Harold Browne (1875–1924), a company director in an advertising agency. Browne studied at the

St John's Wood Art School The St John's Wood Art School ( The Wood or Calderon's Art School) was an art school in St John's Wood, north London, England. The Art School was established in 1878 and was located on Elm Tree Road. It was founded by two art teachers, Elíseo Ab ...

and the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

between 1920–21 and 1927–28. Arriving at the Slade at the unusually young age of 16, she was a contemporary of

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

, Clive Branson, Claude Rogers and

Nan Youngman Nancy Mayhew Youngman OBE, (28 June 1906 – 17 April 1995), was an English painter and educationalist. Youngman is remembered primarily as a painter, but from before the war to the mid-1960s she was an influential figure in art education, as ...

Career

She travelled to Berlin in 1928 to study metalwork and became an apprentice to a stonemason. She was living in Berlin during the rise of

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...

and participated in anti-fascist activities. One account describes her taking part in anti-Nazi street-fighting. In the early 1930s she returned to Britain, leaving her sculptures and tools behind. Browne visited the USSR in 1931 and in 1933 she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, attracting the interest of M15 and Special Branch who continued to monitor her until she left for Spain in 1936. She also became an active member of the

Artists' International Association The Artists' International Association (AIA) was an organisation founded in London in 1933 out of discussion among Pearl Binder, Clifford Rowe, Misha Black, James Fitton, James Boswell, James Holland, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Laszlo Peri'Artis ...

, and in 1934 she won a prize for her design of the

Trade Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...

Tolpuddle medal. She contributed art to ''

Left Review ''Left Review'' was a journal set up by the British section of the Comintern-sponsored International Union of Revolutionary Writers (previously known as the International Bureau for Revolutionary Literature; also known as the Writers' Internationa ...

''.

Involvement in the Spanish Civil War

In July 1936 Browne embarked on a driving holiday to France and Spain, accompanied by her friend Dr

Edith Bone Edith Bone (28 January 1889 – 14 February 1975), originally Edit Olga Hajós, was a medical professional, journalist and translator who later became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Early life Bone was born in Hungary in 1889. ...

, a left-wing photographer. Their objective was to reach

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in time for the

People's Olympiad The People's Olympiad (Catalan: ''Olimpíada Popular'', Spanish: ''Olimpiada Popular'') was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Span ...

(the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

response to the

Olympic games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

Hitler's Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Berlin). However, they arrived shortly before the military rebellion against the Spanish republic that heralded the start of the

(1936–1939), and were immediately caught up in the violence that engulfed Barcelona on 19 July 1936. On 3 August 1936, after several attempts, she successfully enlisted in the

PSUC The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party ...

(Catalan Communist) Karl Marx militia to fight in Aragon on the Zaragoza front. According to the '' Daily Express'' correspondent Sydney Smith, she demanded to be enlisted to fight, declaring that "I am a member of the London Communists and I can fight as well as any man." Shortly after joining she wrote to her friend Elizabeth Watson describing her desperation to get involved; "Apparently no chance of aviation school on account of my eyesight, God damn it."

Death and commemoration

On 25 August 1936 Browne was killed in action on the

Aragón Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises th ...

front near Tardienta, while part of a band of raiders that attempted to dynamite a

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

munitions train. The party was itself ambushed and Browne was shot dead while assisting an injured Italian republican. Browne's body had to be left there but her fellow soldiers retrieved a sketchbook from her possessions filled with drawings of her fellow soldiers. These made their way to

Tom Wintringham Thomas Henry Wintringham (15 May 1898 – 16 August 1949) was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was a supporter of the Home Guard during the Second World War and was one of the founder ...

, a journalist for the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were ...

'', who suggested to Harry Pollitt that they be sold by the

(AIA) to raise money for Spanish relief. The AIA presented Browne as being the epitome of an artist choosing to take direct political action. Her friend and colleague

, who was much affected by her death, organised her memorial exhibition in October 1936.

Early life and education

Career

Involvement in the Spanish Civil War

Death and commemoration

See also

References

Further reading