Alternate name(s):
Brenning
Date of birth:
Sunday, 3 June 1917
Marital status:
single
Ethnicity/Nationality:
Canadian
Profession:
Communist Party of Canada official; plasterer
Hometown(s):
Toronto, Ontario; Sudbury, Ontario
Education:
public school; high school
Political affiliation:
Young Communist League, 1932; Communist Party of Canada, 1933; Served on the Communist Party of Canada National Bureau from 1933
Approximate date arrived in Spain:
1937-02-26 departed Toronto
1937-04-14 arrived
Unit:
Officers' Training School; Abraham Lincoln Battalion; Comision Historica de las Brigades Internacionales in Albacete while recovering from wounds; Volunteered for the Front during the Retreats and served with the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion; Company 3 leader after Tom Trainer was wounded at Mosquito Ridge; Served at Jarama and Brunete
Final status:
WIA in leg 26 July 1937 at Brunete; WIA in arm and head at Gandesa; Hospitalized; Repatriated in May 1938 to attend the Young Communist League Congress; Survived; Worked for Friends of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion organization; Served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II; Mackenzie Papineau Veterans Association (Toronto); Visited Spain with the veterans delegation September 1979; Died 1 June 1995
Other:
An article by Brennan, "Canadians at Brunete," appears in The Book of the XV Brigade, pages 149-150.
Sources:
RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 543, ll. 112-117; NAC, M-P Collection, Hoar, V. 1, F. 6, Accounts of Experiences in Spain, 1938; NAC, M-P Collection, Cecil-Smith, V. 1, F. 16, Memoirs and Accounts of Service in Spain, Brennan, William, 3 pages, no date; Hoar; Momryk; Petrou; Ancestry; Hoff
