Last UK-based International Brigades Survivor Dies Aged 94

The last surviving British-based member of the International Brigades who fought in the Spanish Civil War has died aged 94, The Independent newspaper reported Monday.

David Lomon was a 19-year-old rag-and-bone man in east London when he volunteered to join left-wing forces battling General Francisco Franco's nationalist troops in the 1936-1939 conflict.

Some 35,000 foreign fighters, including some 2,800 Americans and 2,000 Britons, came to Spain from 52 countries to fight fascism, joining the vain bid to stop Franco overthrowing the Second Republic.

From a Jewish family, Lomon volunteered after clashing with British Union of Fascists supporters at the Battle of Cable Street in east London in 1936.

He later served in the British navy in World War II.

"He was very modest and unassuming," said Jim Jump, secretary of the International Brigade Memorial Trust.

"He had a conventional life when he returned. He was not the type to boast about what he did. He was a lovely man: very polite; a classic English gentleman," The Independent quoted him as saying.

Lomon died in Slough, west of London, on Friday.

His death leaves one surviving British volunteer: Stan Hilton, who lives in a nursing home in Australia.