Maurice Constant | Canadian Cultural History About The Spanish Civil War

Alternate name(s):

Morris Constance

Date of birth:

Wednesday, 1 July 1914

Marital status:

single

Ethnicity/Nationality:

Jewish

Profession:

student; writer

Hometown(s):

Toronto, Ontario

Education:

University of Toronto, 4 years: music, economics, philosophy

Political affiliation:

Communist Party of Spain, 1937; Antifascist when arrived in Spain

Prior military experience:

Canadian Officers' Training Corps; Queen's Own Rangers, 4 years

Approximate date arrived in Spain:

1937-08-02 via Espolla

Unit:

Mackenzie Papineau Battalion; Sergeant; Surveyor/scout, Instructor; Served at Quinto, Belchite, Fuentes de Ebro, Teruel, Segura de los Bańos, the Retreatrs; Committee of solidarity with International Brigades in Barcelona

Final status:

WIA during Retreats near Caspe; Hospitalized; Survived; Left Spain on HMS Greyhound, British destroyer, fleeing from Barcelona and the advancing fascists on 26 January 1939; Returned to Canada 23 February 1939 aboard the Duchess of York; Fought during World War II; Mackenzie Papineau Veterans Association (Toronto): Visited Spain with the Veterans Delegation September 1979; Died in Kitchener-Waterloo, 2002

Disciplinary record in Spain:

International Brigades records list Constant as suspected of desertion, but this was an error, as he remained in Barcelona working for the Republican government in international propaganda

Other:

In his 1940 yearbook description, he wrote that he "Attended a highly exclusive European finishing school '37-'39 in Aragon, Spain, until the school collapsed."
Marco Vecchi, an Italian researcher, recalls meeting Constance in Madrid at the 50th anniversary of the International Brigades: "He had a long gray beard and was very kind and modest in recounting his adventures. I remember it with great esteem and admiration."

Sources:

Figueres List; RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 560, ll. 111 (under Constant, Morris); RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 545, ll. 49-55; Momryk; Petrou; Ancestry; Renegades; Hoff