They were the men and women who gave up comfortable lives to fight fascists in a foreign land. Mustered into a ragtag band of soldiers, they crouched at barricades all across the Spanish countryside challenging the marauding forces of General Franco.

Thousands died and the survivors returned to countries suspicious of their socialist sympathies. Now, more than seven decades after Franco conquered republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, their efforts are being recognised.

The gesture is too late for most, but next month Spain will give passports to the surviving members of the International Brigades. Seven British pensioners are due to accept their citizenship at the Spanish Embassy in London on June 9. An eighth, Les Gibson, 96, declined because of poor health, and the offer came too late for Jack Jones, the union leader, and Bob Doyle, both prominent brigade fighters who died this year.

Jack Edwards, 95, who gave up selling newspapers in his native Liverpool in 1937 to sneak into Spain via bus and boat, said that he was “elated” at the Spanish recognition.

Times Archive, 1938: Hard fighting at the Battle of Ebro

Severe fighting continued as squadrons of Nationalist aeroplanes bombed Republican positions

• Archive topic: The Spanish Civil War

Related Links

• Homage in Catalonia

• Case study: Jack Edwards

• Hugh Van Es

Mr Edwards, who was shot in the leg during his service, said that despite the hardships he had seen and experienced, he had no regrets. “You were fighting for rights. You were fighting for something you believed in.”

The Spanish Cabinet overcame political sensitivities in the autumn to implement legislation passed in 2007 that granted citizenship to volunteers who arrived from more than 50 countries between 1936 and 1939 to combat the rebel fascist forces. Only a few hundred of the estimated 35,000 men and women remain alive to benefit from the citizenship offer.

The conflict, in which half a million people died, remains a painful period in Spain’s history. It began when General Francisco Franco, with support from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, challenged the republican government in a military uprising. Spain split between republicans and the fascists in a bloody clash of principles that ended in a fascist victory.

The persecution of anyone with republican leanings continued until Franco’s death in 1975 and it is only in the past decade that discussion of the conflict and its aftermath has become acceptable in Spain.

When the war broke out, Britain and France chose not to help Spain because they were uncomfortable with Madrid’s close friendship with communist Moscow.

Dismayed at the decision, an unlikely group of activists took matters into their own hands. About 2,300 men and women, including trade unionists from Liverpool, Jews from London, a smattering of university-educated poets, and members of the IRA caught boats to France, from where they were helped across the border. Volunteers from countries such as the United States, Canada, Poland and the Soviet Union also joined the fight. Most had minimal, if any, military training and all were poorly equipped. They formed the International Brigades, united under the battle cry “No pasaran — they shall not pass.

Deployed to towns and villages along the front line, the amateur soldiers, dressed in khaki trousers and shirts with a soft hat, dug in alongside the Spanish republican army to face the rebels.

Thousands died, including 525 Britons. Chaotic scenes of machinegun fire, explosions and the ominous drone of German bombers are captured in a number of books, poems and films. George Orwell, who was shot in the neck while serving for an anti-Stalinist communist party rather than the International Brigades, wrote of his experiences in Homage to Catalonia.

Eventually, the might of the rebels with their German and Italian backers was too great. The end came when Juan Negrin, Spain’s republican Prime Minister, told the League of Nations on September 21, 1938, that the International Brigades must leave, in the futile hope that the rebels’ foreign supporters would also depart. Defeated and despondent, many left, though others were kept as prisoners of war.

Not everyone who participated was motivated by anti-fascism. Thomas Watters, a bus driver in Glasgow, ferried wounded republicans from the front line as part of the Scottish Ambulance Unit. “I’m not interested in politics,” said Mr Watters, 96, who is due to receive a Spanish passport next month. “I wanted to help people.”

The other veterans are Lou Kenton, 101; Sam Lesser, 95; Joseph Khan, 94; Paddy Cochrane, 96, from Ireland; and Penny Feiwel, 100.

CIVIL WAR FACTS

Historians estimate that about 500,000 people died in the war

Despite other European powers signing non-intervention pact, about 40,000 foreigners went to Spain to fight for the republicans

Germany and Italy ignored the agreement and sent troops to help Franco. Moscow provided supplies to government forces

The International Brigades suffered 5,000 fatalities, including 2,000 Germans, 1,000 French, 900 Americans and over 500 Britons

The factions executed 120,000 people during the war. The victors put 100,000 to death afterwards

Sources: The Spanish Civil War, Spartacus, Times Archive

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