Priceless war photos donated

Civil War front-line doctor's photos donated to Dénia

RELATIVES of a doctor on the front line during the Civil War have donated 72 of his pictures of the conflict to Dénia.

Daughters Mireya and Mericel Usano Crespo say they want their dad's photos to be 'kept and used in memory' of all those who 'suffered reprisals', were 'exiled' or 'gave their lives' to 'defend democracy'.

Dr Manuel Usano Martín, who lived and studied in Valencia, volunteered to work with the anti-fascists in 1936 and became medical captain of the Juan Marco batallion and then health chief for the International Brigades – who included many Brits – before leaving for France when the war was over in 1939.

A keen photographer, Dr Usano caught footage from the heart of the action on his small, modest camera.

He left for France on a hospital train in 1939 with his wife, Rosa Crespo Giner, a nurse on the front line in the Civil War and daughter of a Dénia family, and Mericel, who was a few months old.

They escaped being forced into a concentration camp thanks to Rosa's having Argentine nationality.

After a year in Bordeaux, they spent many years in exile in Colombia, where Mireya was born and Dr Usano worked as a university professor, then moved to New York where he got a job in the Pfizer pharmaceutical laboratory.

The family returned to Spain in 1962 and spent every summer in their new holiday home, L'Aiguadolç, at the end of Las Rotas.

They first visited the town to see Dr Usano's friend, paediatrician Dr Juan Serrano, and fell in love with the town.

Mireya and Mericel say their parents' ashes were scattered out to sea in Dénia.

The photographs show their father's experiences on the front line in Teruel, Córdoba, Málaga, Almería and Madrid, and can be viewed by anyone who wants to in the town archive.

Relatives of one of Dr Usano's war colleagues, Déniaborn Juan Bertomeu Ramis, were present when the photographs were handed over and the two families swapped tales they had heard from the two men.