Bill Alexander (British politician)

The son of a carpenter, Bill Alexander was born into a large working-class family in the rural English town of Ringwood, Hampshire. ==Spanish Civil War==

In spring of 1937, Alexander volunteered to join the British Battalion of the International Brigades to aid the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Arriving in Spain, he first saw combat during the Battle of Brunete. After a fortnight of fighting, his battalion went from a strength of 300 to 42, with Alexander one of the survivors. He received a citation for bravery at the Battle of Belchite in September 1937. Alexander rose to the rank of commander of the British Battalion and led his troops at the Battle of Teruel. During this battle, he sustained serious bullet wounds to his chest and shoulder. Due to these injuries, he left Spain in June 1938. ==World War II==

After his return to Britain from Spain, Alexander was made the CPGB's Merseyside Area secretary. After leaving the British Army, Alexander resumed working as a full-time activist for the CPGB. ==Post-WWII and later life==

, East Berlin in July 1958, while representing the CPGB. Alexander stood in Coventry East for the 1945 and 1951 general elections, but lost his deposit on both occasions. He was Midlands Area Secretary of the CPGB from 1947 to 1953, then Welsh Area Secretary until 1959, when he was made Assistant General Secretary of the Party. In 1967 he resigned his CPGB post, and became a chemistry teacher at Sydenham School. However, he remained a member of the CPGB until its dissolution in 1991. In the 1980s he was a vocal opponent of what he regarded as a revisionist trend within the Party. In his last decade, he spoke in favour of environmental causes. Alexander served as president of the Marx Memorial Library from 1989 until 1996. He ran the International Brigade Association, and wrote extensively on the Spanish Civil War, publishing British Volunteers For Liberty, No To Franco, and contributing to Memorials Of The Spanish Civil War. In 1996 he led a delegation of veterans back to Spain to visit old battlegrounds. Bill Alexander died on 11 July 2000, at age 90. == Works ==

• British Volunteers For Liberty. Lawrence and Wishart, UK, 1982 • George Orwell and Spain. Lawrence and Wishart, UK, 1984 • No To Franco: The Struggle Never Stopped 1939-1975. B. Alexander, 1992 • Memorials Of The Spanish Civil War. Sutton, UK, 1996 == See also ==