Bill Alexander

William Alexander (13 June 1910 – 11 July 2000) was a leading activist within the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He was best known for commanding the British Battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. During World War II he served in the British Army, with deployments in Northern Africa, Italy, and Germany. He was promoted to the rank of captain in the Reconnaissance Corps. After the war he became an author, the vice-chairman of the International Brigade Association, and the president of London's Marx Memorial Library. He spent the remainder of his life promoting Marxism–Leninism, and was a member of the CPGB until the Party was dissolved in 1991.

Early life 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. After leaving the British Army, Alexander resumed working as a full-time activist for the CPGB.

Post-WWII and later life Alexander receiving applause at the Fifth Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, 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