[Vwoolf] Julian Bell's remains

[Pat Laurence]

Excerpt from *Julian Bell, The Violent Pacifist* (Bloomsbury Heritage
Series)

       Julian Bell took part in one of the largest offensives of the
Spanish Civil War—the Battle of Brunete-- just west of Madrid. It was one
of the bloodiest encounters of the war as the Republican forces. were
pounded by Franco’s air and artillery attacks --and costliest --as half of
the British Medical Unit was killed by the end of the three-week campaign.
Julian, driving roads as an ambulance driver near Villanueva de Canada as
part of the Spanish Medical Aid Unit attempted to escape a bombardment and
hid under a lorry along with others who were wounded by fragments of the
bombs. In his case, a fragment pierced his lung, and he was taken to a
hospital in Escorial where they had no capabilities for the surgery he
needed and he died July 18, 1937.

     Richard Rees, his friend, wrote of these events and of El Galoso
Hospital to which he and Julian were attached in “Close-Up of a Battle.” He
assessed Franco’s superiority in airplanes, 3 to 1. He described “a world
where the very air had turned into a whistling menace that might suddenly
give birth to a blinding maiming explosion.” Despite the horror of the
scene, he described Julian as “excited”; “indefatigable,”  “talented at
organizing”; and “fuming with impatience at being kept so far from the
front.” Practical to the end—possessing the family ability to improvise and
patch--in a lull in the battle, Julian, he said, went out to repair the
shell-holes in the roads.

      Julian's death on July 18, 1937, occurred during Virginia Woolf's
writing of *Three Guineas*, her polemic about the ‘waste’ of war that has
Julian as its subtext....


by Pat Laurence

Professor Emerita

City University of New York





On Fri, Aug 16, 2024 at 4:56 PM Mark Hussey via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
wrote:

> An article in The Times (with some quite odd moments, such as Duncan Grant
> “often stayed at Charleston” as if he had been only an occasional visitor!)
> but otherwise informative and poignant. https: //www. thetimes.
> com/world/europe/article/search-starts-for-remains-of-poet-julian-bell-in-civil-war-grave-6b50z0qk7
>
> An article in The Times (with some quite odd moments, such as Duncan Grant
> “often stayed at Charleston” as if he had been only an occasional visitor!)
> but otherwise informative and poignant.
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/search-starts-for-remains-of-poet-julian-bell-in-civil-war-grave-6b50z0qk7__;!!KGKeukY!y5I5VYWAhSBKV79BDUBjxKfSGj1Ld5qoeKCrVJlfBKT34xJPALBrxAO2dBnZzLRmZLst4vN3CFeQGbQS2YW5ZoCj6Q$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/search-starts-for-remains-of-poet-julian-bell-in-civil-war-grave-6b50z0qk7__;!!KGKeukY!0Kr-Jq5Tn2r9yE-st7_ERfIKSKuWAtvzepOPhF3f9mpeAIrprI549VHi--jxP4FzJpiaOTgBPwoUMdt6OqlhMw$>
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