Exhibition marks 80th anniversary of Basque child refugees welcomed to Keighley

Friday, 27 October 2017 07:00

A talk and an exhibition to mark the 80th Anniversary of the arrival of child refugees from the Basque region of Northern Spain is being held at Keighley Local Studies library.

The talk will be given by two experts on the period, Simon Martinez and John Birkbeck, on Saturday 28 October at 2.00pm.

The children had been evacuated at the height of the Spanish Civil War to avoid the bombing and hunger following the destruction of the Basque town Guernica.

Almost 4,000 children came to Britain on the SS Habana in May 1937. The boat docked in Southampton where the children stayed before being moved across the country.

On the 13 September 1937, the Morton Banks Sanatorium in East Riddlesden and the Dr Barnardo children’s home on Manningham Lane, Bradford were turned over to voluntary groups to house the children.

Keighley welcomed 100 of these child refugees and a few adults who accompanied them.

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