Russell, Ross

Ross Russell was born in Russell Greenberg on January 30, 1911, in Toronto, Ontario. He was born to James Greenberg and Rose Wermes, who were non-practicing Jews. Both of Russell’s parents were born in the United States but came to Canada to raise their family.

Russell lived and attended school in Toronto, but at the age of 18 left school and started work at FW Woolworth Company in North York, transferring after a year and a half to the Montreal location as an assistant manager. In the early 1930s, the Depression occurred, and Adolph Hitler came to power, prompting Russell to start educating himself on world politics and conflicts. When the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, Russell followed the story closely. It was at this time that he married, and his wife became one of the leaders of a local committee dedicated to helping the Spanish. In 1937, Russell left his job and signed onto the International Brigades, ready to travel overseas and help in the Spanish conflict. He and his fellows secretively journeyed to Spain by way of France, enacting a “spy thriller-esque” sequence of covert meetings, midnight bus convoys, and a march over the Pyrenees Mountains.

Once at the Albacete headquarters of the International Brigades, the men were divided into language groups and Canada was paired up with America and England to form the 15th Brigade. Russell was trained to be a machine gunner and moved many times with his company but didn’t see any action until the fight for Tervel. During this battle, he was hit in the back by shrapnel and had to be taken first to hospital and then a convalescent home in Denia. After recovering from this injury, misfortune struck again when the train Russell was travelling in was bombed and he was once more hit by a bomb fragment. In the early summer of 1938, Russell was in a hospital in Valencia when the city was bombed, delaying his departure from Spain.

Russell returned home to Montreal in February of 1938 and, after a period of recovery, was scouted to manage a new location of the Federal Store, on the condition that he change his original surname of Greenberg, which he did. However, after only a year and a half, he got a more attractive offer from a store in Toronto and moved back with his wife, enlisting in the army reserves once there. In the 1970s, Russell joined the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Veterans, an association committed to gaining official veteran status for those Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He eventually become president of the association and remained an active member until his death in 1990.