Refugee children from the Basque region in Spain (1937)
Photo 1: Basque refugee children practising traditional dances in 1937/8. (Photo source: Cambridgeshire Collection)
Photo 2: Basque refugee children working on their newsletter 'Ayuda' in 1937/38. (Photo source: Cambridgeshire Collection)
Photo 3: Salisbury Villas – a hostel for 29 Spanish children from the Basque country was located here from 1938-1939. (Photo source: Mike Levy)
Photo 4: Bridge Street – a shop here was set up to support refugees from the Basque country. Girls from the hostel would perform folk dances outside this shop to raise money for their keep. (Photo source: Mike Levy)
In May 1937, nearly 4,000 refugee children from the Spanish Civil War were brought over to Britain for safety. 29 came to Cambridge, where they were supported by the Cambridge Basque Refugee Committee led by Professor Francis Cornford. They were housed at first in the Old Vicarage in Pampisford, but later moved into a large college-owned house called Salisbury Villas on the corner of Station Road and Tenison Road in Cambridge. Here, they lived with their chaperones for two years. They were taught English and maths by local undergraduates, and many volunteers helped to support them. Professor Cornford gave his holiday home in Norfolk to the group, so they could enjoy a holiday by the sea.
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Paul Gallego, the son of one of the Basque refugees, talks below about his father, who became a professional footballer and the experiences of the other Basque refugee children, who had found refuge in Cambridge:
1. Escape and journey
" My father and his brother and three sisters came over on the refugee ship in 1937. My dad was 13, and I think the youngest sister might have been about 6 or 7. They went from Santander or Bilbao due to the Civil War and landed in Southampton. There were five siblings. There is one left behind [in the Basque region], but she died soon after. My grandfather was killed in the Civil War.
The children went to Salisbury Villas, where they got their education from. Volunteers would come and teach them."
2. Arrival in Cambridge
" There were people in Cambridge who looked kindly on them and sponsored them.
I think, they were quite happy there [the hostel at Salisbury Villas]. They were all sort of similar age and they got a lot of education.'
Some of the boys liked football, I think that was their way of getting on with people. You know, it sort of broke the ice, because I suppose when they first came over they didn't speak English. It was their way of integrating, making friends."
3. Employment
" When they left [Salisbury] villas, they worked locally. They (brothers) both worked on the same farm. They lived on the farm, because he [interviewee’s dad] said in the morning there'd be a bang on the wall, “time to get up lads!
I think that [playing football] was their way of getting on with people, you know, it sort of broke the ice because when they first came over, they didn't speak English so that was their way of integrating, making friends. And then this love of football went on to become a profession. Joe [uncle of interviewee] became a professional [footballer] at Brentford. He was there roughly when they were in the top league just after the war. Then he went to Southampton, and I think he then went to Colchester, but he liked living in Cambridge, so he came back to Cambridge. Tony [uncle] joined Norwich as a professional, but he was a goalkeeper, he played sort of semi-professional locally in Cambridge, at Abbey United."