John Charles Firmin was working on a farm north of Lethbridge, Alberta when he heard about the Spanish Civil War. With sympathy for the Republic and indignation over fascism and Nazism, he left Lethbridge for Toronto, from where he was sent to New York and then to Manhattan, heading across the ocean for France. He went from Le Havre to Carcassonne and after a long trip climbing over the Pyrenees, he finally reached Figueras in March 1938.
Joining the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion on March 28, 1938, he billeted in a camp in Figueras for about two weeks for training before going to Gandesa, where he was involved in a battle and badly wounded. He was carried to a field medical ambulance for treatment and then transferred to a prison hospital in Saragossa for operation. Following that he was sent to another hospital in Bilbao along with some of his Spanish comrades and received another operation on his arm. He spent the Christmas of 1938 in the hospital and stayed until his arm had healed up. Following his stay in Bilbao, he was kept in prisons in Burgos and Valdemoceda until May 1939, when he was released from Spain and returned to Canada. He later joined the Mackenzie Papineau Veterans Association in Toronto. He died in 1982 in Semans, Saskatchewan.
William Matthews was born in Saskatchewan in 1912. Moving with his family to California at a young age, he started school in California and stayed there for seven years until his family moved back to Canada. Finishing high school in Calgary in 1932, he found a job as a miner in Sudbury in 1936 while at the same time working with the Worker's Sport Association as an organizer. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Matthews headed for Spain in June,1937 and joined the International Brigades. On arriving at Tarazona, he was sent to Pozo Rubio, an officer's training school of the International Brigades near Albacete to receive military training. During his stay in Pozo Rubio, he took charge of an Anglo-Saxon group, a sniper school with Joe Schoen for a month before going back to Tarazona. He joined the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion in Madrid and later became officially a sergeant, taking charge of the section 36. He was in reserve on the central front before being sent to Valencia on December 31, 1937, fighting in the Battle at Teruel. A month later, he went on and got into actions at Seguro de los Baños and then in the Ebro Offensive until being wounded in his shoulder and arm. Having received treatment at a hospital in Mataro, he was sent to Barcelona in August 1938, and eventually returned to Canada in 1939.
Marvin Penn was born in Winnipeg on September 14, 1913, to Annie and Joseph Penn. Moving to Canada with his family in 1928, he graduated from the University of Manitoba with a degree in Animal Husbandry and then moved to British Columbia to learn hunting fish and mining. After returning to Winnipeg a year later, Penn worked as a fur dresser and joined the Canadian Militia.
In 1936 Penn left Winnipeg for Spain where he joined the International Brigade, serving with the Abraham Lincoln Battalion and later the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion. Penn participated in four major battles as a soldier and as a first aid man before stationing with the brigade headquarters at the Karl Marx barracks in Barcelona, setting up and supervising a hospital for International Brigadiers.
Penn returned to Canada in 1939 and lived in Toronto from 1943 to 1953, working mostly in the restaurant industry before returning to Winnipeg where he worked in airplane manufacturing during World War Two.Penn worked in the insurance industry and served on the boards of Bnai Brith and Herzlia Academy. He was also a broker of his own business, Penn Agencies and was a member of the Winnipeg Real Estate Board for 35 years. Penn organized a local group for veterans of the Spanish Civil War and was heavily involved with other veteran groups around the world. In 1996, he returned to Spain with other veterans of the Spanish Civil War where he was made an honourary citizen.
Penn passed away in Winnipeg in 2001.
Dr. Gerald S. (Gerry) Cohen (1931-2017) was a physician, educator, and musician.
Dr. Cohen earned an M.D. degree from the University of Toronto in 1955. After completing an internship, he opened a family practice in Toronto in 1957. His wife, Dr. May Cohen (m. 1952), joined his practice in the summer of 1958. In 1977, he joined the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University in the Department of Family Medicine.
Dr. Cohen was also a talented clarinetist and saxophonist. For twenty-five years, he was a member of the Burlington Concert Band.
Dr. Cohen passed away in Toronto on November 16, 2017 at the age of 86.