Julius Manny

Manny Julius

Manny was born Emmanuel Nadelsticher on 25th May 1912 in Westcliff-on-Sea to Harry and Sophie Julius.  Harry's father's name had been Julius Nadelsticher but he eventually became known as Mr N Julius and his children adopted `Julius' as their surname. The youngest of his children was actually registered as Julius, although all the rest were registered as Nadelsticher, as were some of the grandchildren. Westcliffe is today a suburb of Southend but was then a very popular residential area for Jewish clothing manufacturers.

Manny moved in 1925 to Brondesbury, London NW2, perhaps to be able to attend the near-by Kilburn Grammar School.  At some point, according to a niece of his, he ran a “communist café” in Mornington Crescent.

More certainly, having become a Communist Party member in London, he went to Spain in late 1935 as driver and correspondent for the “News Chronicle”. Interestingly, once General Franco’s military rebellion against the elected Spanish government began, Manny’s paper was one of the few British newspapers in support of the Republican government. (Obviously, the Daily Worker was to the fore in providing support.)

Other correspondents were despatched to Spain by the Chronicle and Manny joined the British Ambulance Volunteers as quartermaster for the unit.  Manny was killed in action in August or October 1936 at the Alcubierre front in Aragon.

Sources:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/spanjews.pdf

Archie Cochrane “One Man's Medicine” (1989)

Jill Lewis