Boadilla

by Esmond Romilly

Esmond Romilly (1918-1941) was Winston Churchill’s nephew and even rumoured to be his illegitimate son. Already notorious as a teenage runaway from Wellington College, one of the leading English public schools, Romilly was among the first British volunteers to join the International Brigades in Spain, cycling across France to fight on the side of the legitimate Spanish Republican Government against Franco’s insurrection. He saw intensive front line action in defence of Madrid, culminating in the battle of Boadilla del Monte in December 1936.Written on his honeymoon in France after eloping with Jessica Mitford in early 1937, this is his personal account of those events, in which many fellow comrades lost their lives. As well as a highly readable and moving memoir, it has served as a primary historical source for many leading scholars writing about the Spanish Civil War, including Paul Preston, Hugh Thomas and Anthony Beevor.This annotated edition also includes an introduction and an appendix with three poems written in Spain by the poet John Cornford, who died on the battlefield in Spain at Lopera, near Córdoba.Romilly later joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was killed when his plane was shot down over the Atlantic in 1941.

Genres: Nonfiction

290 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Esmond Marcus David Romilly was a British socialist and anti-fascist, nephew of Winston S. Churchill. He was married to Jessica Mitford.

Reviews

[James Hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a informative, interesting little eyewitness account of the beginnings of the Battle of Madrid at the start of the Spanish Civil War. It is Romilly's attempt to provide some sort of memorial for his ragbag collection of colleagues, who numbered only about twenty. Most of them died in the Battle of Boadilla, then a small village in the wrong place at the wrong time, now a thriving commuter satellite town, rich and prosperous.
The book is recommended to anyone with an interest in the history of the time. The writing is descriptive and honest and there is a lot of wonderful contemporary colour and dialogue.
As is always repeated with this book, Romilly was probably Churchill's son and definitely his nephew, but don't let that put you off. Read it to see what it must have been like to have turned up on Spanish shores with nothing but idealism in your heart and be faced with well-trained (Moorish) troops, whistling hurricanes of lead and Nazi-death machines dropping bombs from the sky.

[Rebeca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know Winston Churchill's nephew came to fight during the spanish civil war. His account is clearly propagandistic and realistically crude at the same time. In Spain people tend to forget that Franco attacked civilians throughout the war, so reading the version of someone who was there is a cruel reminder of that. Also it's so refreshing to read fascists being called as such.

[Trinity Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a special interest in this book because I am the granddaughter of Harry Addley aka Titch who was fighting alongside Romilly and others. It was fascinating reading about the Grandfather that I never knew, but also harrowing in equal measure.