Alternate name(s):
Heahey; Hearey
Date of birth:
Thursday, 3 April 1913
Marital status:
single later married Virginia Shain or Strain
Ethnicity/Nationality:
Irish
Profession:
cook
Hometown(s):
Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; Belfast, Ireland
Date of immigration to Canada:
Thursday, 22 August 1929
Political affiliation:
Not a member of the Communist Party
Approximate date arrived in Spain:
1937-09-03
Unit:
Trained in Torcilla on machine guns; Mackenzie Papineau Battalion, Company 1 Political commissar; Served at Fuentes de Ebro and Teruel
Final status:
In jail in Barcelona or Badalona; Survived; Returned to Canada 3 February 1939 on the Duchess of Richmond
Disciplinary record in Spain:
Considered a "disruptive element" and leader of a clique alongside Ernest Bigwood; Deserted on 29 March 1938 at Mora de Ebro; Arrested by Carabineros at Massenet trying to cross into France; Castelldefels Prison before being sent to a disciplinary battalion; Attempted to desert again in June and was apprehended in Barcelona; Returned to Castelldefels; Proposed for expulsion; Joined the Canadians at Ripoll in December 1938
Other:
See Gregory D. Page, "Ideology and the Canadians in the Spanish Civil War," University of New Brunswick, 1995, pg. 103-8, for more information about the group around Bigwood and Heaney
Sources:
Figueres List; RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 551, ll. 77-78; McLoughlin; Momryk; Petrou; Hoff
