ON MY MIND

ALICANTE is a popular place for tourists. The narrow streets and quaint houses are dominated by Castillo de Santa Barbara which affords magnificent views of the Mediterranean coast. It was briefly occupied by the Brits in 1873 but mercifully they didn’t offer a full English breakfast.

Visitors strolling today in the port, after enjoying a glass of vino and a traditional Paella Alicantina, will come across the bust of a Welsh sea captain. Cardiff-born Archibald Dickson was captain of SS Stanbrook, a steam merchant vessel of 1,383 tons which at the end of March 1939 was anchored in the port waiting to load oranges and saffron. But the ending of the Spanish Civil War meant that thousands of Republican refugees were at the eastern ports fleeing from the atrocities of Franco. Dickson grimly watched as the numbers grew and the port authorities asked him to take on board these desperate people. He was placed in a dilemma – instructed by the ship’s owner to deliver the cargo but seeing the condition of the women and children – and so he decided to take them with him to Oran in Algeria.

There were all sorts of people, some poorly dressed and very hungry and some who seemed to be quite well off. People carried bags and suitcases, all they possessed. They stood on the deck cold and hungry; some lay on the tables and the floor and Dickson allowed some of the weakest people to use his cabin. The ship arrived safely at Oran late the following day, dodging the fire from Franco’s planes. I met Dickson’s son, Arnold, when I was researching my book on the Welsh captains. He was surprised that the people of Alicante still revere his father and celebrate his action at this time of the year. For Archibald Dickson had saved 2,638 refugees on his boat.

Nothing changes with evil dictators. Yet neither does the compassion of ordinary people. An extraordinary number of people in Wales have offered a home to fleeing Ukrainian families, something the Francos and Putins of this world will never understand.