Nancy Cunard’s Spanish Civil War reports
Nancy Cunard (1896–1965), former heiress, author and political activist was hired by the Manchester Guardian during the closing days of the Spanish Civil War. The telegram above, sent by Cunard to William Crozier on the 31st January 1939, is just one of many communications raising the dreadful conditions experienced by Spanish refugees caught up in the war.
The Manchester Guardian Archive contains a folder of around 125 letters and related material sent between Nancy Cunard (1896–1965) and the Cross Street office of the Manchester Guardian. Most of the letters are addressed to the editor William Crozier (1879–1944). The bulk of the letters relate to freelance journalism conducted by Cunard on behalf of the Manchester Guardian around the period 1938–9 when she reported on the final stages of the Spanish Civil War from Perpignan. She writes eloquently and movingly on the humanitarian impact of the conflict and the plight of refugees and fleeing republican soldiers.
The video below features Dr Janette Martin, Modern History Archivist and curator of the 2021 Guardian bicentenary exhibition, discussing a typescript, annotated war report sent by Cunard. You can read the full report here. This first hand account was never published in the Manchester Guardian.
This collection was digitised in 2021 during the bicentenary of the Guardian newspaper. A telegram sent by Cunard features in the online exhibition ‘Manchester’s Guardian: 200 years of the Guardian newspaper’. You can find out more on the Cunard Spanish Civil War correspondence and access digital copies here:
