Anniversary of the Spanish Civil War

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Anniversary of the Spanish Civil War

Anniversary of the Spanish Civil War

Plan International Co-Founder John Langdon Davies — John Langdon-Davies with his sons

John Langdon Davies was a war reporter, based in London when the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936. He soon jumped on the back of his motorbike and drove to the Spanish border, making it through the barricades thanks to visas sorted out by his commissioning paper, the London Chronicle.

He travelled from Barcelona to Madrid, and through Toledo, seeing destruction and devastation in the face of conflict. On his trips back to London he would often do public speaking to highlight the horrors he had seen in order to raise funds for medical aid to be sent to Spain.

As his reports took him into further war-torn zones John Langdon-Davies decided that he wanted to help the children he saw caught up in the midst of conflict. In order to minimise the possibility of more dead children on the street, he opened his first children’s home in March 1937 in Catalunya. Thanks to support from the local Catalan government, he housed orphaned or displaced children in a large home in the countryside. Shortly after, Eric Muggeridge joined the cause, and excelled at fundraising.

A young Spanish child that was brought to the UK during the Civil War

Starting with word-of-mouth alone, John and Eric’s friends in the UK and USA signed up to sponsor children, sending donations and writing letters every few months. Some children who were sponsored, despite not understanding English, kept their sponsor’s letters for many years, noting that in their time of need the contact from afar gave them comfort.

The men were working in a conflict zone and while the children were far better off away from the direct threat of bombs, there was a lot of suffering in the early years. Despite this, their work carried on and children’s colonies were set up in the UK, which then, shortly after the Spanish Civil War became colonies for children displaced by the Second World War.

Much of what was the issue then, is still very real now for families fleeing Syria. Plan International has carried on the great work of John Langdon-Davies and Eric Muggeridge in assisting children most in need and ensuring that education is key, both in everyday life and at a time of disaster.

It’s these core principles that have remained in Plan International’s work, despite being an international NGO almost 80 years later.