Clive Branson

2024-08-14T03:01:19Z

2604:2000:AFC0:102:453C:9A41:2C39:2458: /* Life */

{{short description|English artist}}
{{for|the Welsh angler|Clive Branson (angler)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
'''Clive Ali Chimmo Branson''' (1907 – 25 February 1944) was an English artist and poet, and an active [[communist]] in the 1930s. A number of his paintings are in the [[Tate Gallery]]. His wife was [[Noreen Branson]] (16 May 1910 – 25 October 2003). Their daughter is the artist [[Rosa Branson]] (born 1933).

== Life ==

He was an active recruiter for the [[International Brigade]], and himself fought in the [[Spanish Civil War]] from January 1938, being captured at [[Calaceite]] on 31 March 1938. As a [[prisoner of war]] at the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalist]] camp of San Pedro de Cardeña, he painted and sketched the camp and many of its inmates, at the request of the authorities; some of this work survives in the Marx Memorial Library in London.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baxell|first=Richard|authorlink=Richard Baxell|title=[[Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism]]|year=2012|publisher=Aurum Press|location=London|isbn=978-1-84513-697-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/unlikelywarriors0000baxe/page/448 448]}}</ref>

He married [[Noreen Branson|Noreen Browne]] in 1931. Their daughter [[Rosa Branson]] was born in 1933. He died in action in [[Burma]] on 25 February 1944, where he was serving as a Sergeant in the British Army, as part of the 54th Training Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps.<ref>{{cite book|last=Branson|first=Noreen|title=History of the Communist Party 1941–51|year=1997|publisher=Lawrence & Wishart|location=London|isbn=0-85315-862-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofcommuni0000unse_n6x9/page/55 55]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcommuni0000unse_n6x9/page/55}}</ref>

Branson was killed commanding an [[M3 Lee]] tank of B Squadron, [[25th Dragoons]]. He was hit a glancing but fatal blow on the back of the head by a Japanese anti-tank shell near Point 315 at the end of the [[Battle of the Admin Box]]. Branson was a popular man in the unit and his crew "were inconsolable".<ref>Holland, James (2016). ''Burma '44''. London: Corgi. pp. 359–60.</ref> His friend, the composer [[Bernard Stevens]], dedicated his 1945 ''Symphony of Liberation'' to the memory of Branson.<ref>[https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/CH7008.pdf Andrew Burn. Notes to ''Classic Widows'', Chandos CD 7008 (1995)]</ref>

==Sources==
*''British Soldier in India: The Letters of Clive Branson'' (1945), with introduction by [[Harry Pollitt]].
*[[Richard Baxell]]. ''[[Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism]]'' (London: Aurum, 2012)
* Mirante, Edith: “A Death in Arakan: Clive Branson, Antifascist Painter and Poet” Mekong Review (2023, March) [https://mekongreview.com/a-death-in-arakan-part-1-clive-branson-antifascist-painter-and-poet/ online]
*Richard Knott: ''The Secret War Against the Arts'' (Pen & Sword, 2020).
*Richard Knott (ed.): 'The Selected Poems of Clive Branson' (Smokestack Books, 2023).

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* Clive Branson works at the Tate gallery [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/clive-branson-3094]
* Feature on Clive and Rosa Branson [http://www.andrewwhitehead.net/blog/clive-branson-rose-branson-and-red-battersea]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Branson, Clive}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:English communists]]
[[Category:20th-century English painters]]
[[Category:English male painters]]
[[Category:British people of the Spanish Civil War]]
[[Category:Spanish Civil War prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Royal Armoured Corps soldiers]]
[[Category:British prisoners of war]]
[[Category:International Brigades personnel]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:British Army personnel killed in World War II]]
[[Category:Tank commanders]]
[[Category:20th-century English male artists]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedford School]]

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Clive Branson