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Barnsby George

George Barnsby George J Barnsby was born in Battersea, south London in 1919. His father, also George Barnsby, died of influenza in 1922, when his oldest son, the boy George was three years old – […]

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Barr Sammy

Sammy Barr Born December 20th 1931, as Samuel Alexander Barr, he began working in the shipyards of the Clyde as an apprentice welder with Charles Connell and Company in Scotstoun when he was 15 years […]

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Bart Lionel

Lionel Bart Born on 1st. August 1930, this surname of this famous British composer, playwright, and lyricist was originally Begleiter. He was the youngest of seven surviving children of a Jewish family in the East […]

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Bates Frank

Frank Bates An active member of the Communist Party in Coventry, Bates was a member of the AEU. While not very active in the branch due to his health, he had been Party literature secretary. […]

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Bass Alfie

Alfie Bass The well known actor, Alfie Bass, was born Abraham Basalinksy in 1916 in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest of a large Jewish family. His parents had fled persecution in Russia and would have welcomed the […]

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Beauchamp Joan

Joan Beauchamp Elizabeth “Joan” Beauchamp was the sister of Kay Beauchamp (see separate entry), a leading suffragette and a personal friend of the Pankhurst family. She was also one of the earliest women graduates from […]

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Beckett Clem

Clem Beckett British Communists were to the forefront in the war against fascism in Spain from 1936-1939, members of the Young Communist League of Britain were particularly so. YCLers found their way to the scene […]

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Bedow Norman

Norman Bedow Born in 1906, Bedow was a Unity Theatre activist from Paul Robeson’s appearance at Mornington Crescent in `Plant in the Sun’. An activist in the Co-op movement, he was also involved in the […]

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Behan Brian

Brian Behan Born November 10th 1926, he became a well-known Irish playwright and novelist and inveterate self-publicist. Brian Behan was the younger brother of the more famous Brendan. Their mother had been a courier to […]

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Bell Tom

Tom Bell Thomas Bell was born in Parkhead, Glasgow in 1882, the son of a stone mason and a cotton spinner. He left school at 12 years of age and his first job was as […]