Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history.
Series 13
Programme 13
11听July听2006
What became of Republicans after the Spanish Civil War?
Making History listener John Vistuer contacted the programme to help him clarify his grandfather's military career. Augusto P茅rez Miranda was born 28 April 1907 and fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. When it was defeated he fled over the Pyrenees to France where, family legend has it, he was given the ultimatum of going to prison or joining the Foreign Legion. He was then posted to Norway and eventually made his way to Britain where he was recruited to the Special Operations Executive via the Pioneer Corps at Westward Ho!.
Making History consulted Dr Terry Charman at the Imperial War Museum in London. Dr Terry Charman confirmed much of the family story. However, Augusto would have been given the option of internment and not imprisonment in France. He confirmed the presence of French forces in Norway in 1940 (helping the British and Poles trying to defend Narvik) and his recruitment by the British who needed Spanish linguists in their work trying to ensure Spanish neutrality.
Further reading
Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006)
The Vatican Navy
Making History listener Gill Shepherd's ancestor William Raspison was born in 1815 in Gravesend to a seafaring family. But he met his death as a ship's engineer, killed when a mast fell on him on a "pontifical government steamboat" in Italy in 1846. Gill approached Making History to find out more about these steamboats and whether or not the Vatican had a navy.
Making History consulted Dr David Laven, Senior Lecturer in Italian Historical Studies at the University of Manchester. Dr Laven confirmed that there was a Vatican Navy, but in the 1840s this was very small. He told the programme that, although he was famously opposed to railways, Pope Gregory XVI bought three steamboats from Britain to carry freight up the River Tiber. Dr Laven believes that William Raspison may have worked on one of these.
Articles on Pope Gregory XVI听
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Italian chapel on Orkney
Several listeners suggested that we visit the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war on Orkney. Below are some links which feature this spectacular curiosity:听
Bavarian Chapel, Warwick Street, London W1
Hilary Chester from Kegworth near Derby wrote to Making History, enclosing a marriage certificate from 1864. It showed that her great-grandparents were married at the Royal Bavarian Chapel in Westminster. What was this place, she asked?
Making History consulted Dr Rory O'Donnell of English Heritage.
Very good information on the chapel and the lives of Catholics in 18th- and 19th-century London can be found at the following sites:听
Vanessa has presented听science and current affairs programmes for 大象传媒, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for 大象传媒 Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.听
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:
Making History
大象传媒 Radio 4
PO Box 3096 Brighton
BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presented听science and current affairs programmes for 大象传媒, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for 大象传媒 Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.听