Frederick Bayes Copeman OBE (1907–1983) was an English volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, commanding the British Battalion.

[1] Shortly, afterwards, George was sent to Canada to make a fresh start by the children's charity, Barnardo's, and Fred "never saw nor heard of him [again]".

[2] The focus of care at the time was to make boys swiftly self-sufficient and so, aged 12, Copeman was sent to Watts Naval School at North Elmham, Norfolk, to prepare for a life at sea.

After two years, he was duly enlisted in the Royal Navy and was sent to HMS Ganges, an onshore naval training base near Shotley in Suffolk.

He also narrowly missed the chance to become an officer, spending three weeks in Malta's Corradina prison for "a practical joke"[3] that went wrong.

In September 1931, as part of its attempts to deal with the Great Depression, the new National Government launched cuts to public spending.

Sailors of the Atlantic Fleet, arriving at Invergordon (on the Cromarty Firth in Scotland) in the afternoon of Friday 11 September, learned about the cuts from newspaper reports.

[5] In Crusade in Spain, Jason Gurney notes that Copeman was not charged, suggesting that his role must have been far more minor than the leader he presented himself to have been.

By this time, he was more or less insane, giving completely inconsequential orders to everybody in sight, and offering to bash their faces in if they did not comply.

Later, just before the Battle of Teruel, he nearly died of complications from his wound (a small piece of unremoved shrapnel became infected) and was invalided home permanently.

This took place at Lewisham Register Office on 21 May 1938 and "some eleven hundred people"[11] gathered for the wedding reception that night at St Pancras Town Hall.

As a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party, he was invited to visit the Kremlin, where he met Dolores Ibárruri, better known as La Pasionara.

The officer draws special attention to the fact that Copeman was once heard "singing the Red Flag in the streets of Devonport".

[14]Nevertheless, when the Second World War came "he was to play a significant role in organising civilian protection against German air-raids in London and was decorated".

In June 1940, shortly after the government had affirmed that it would not make evacuation compulsory, Copeman spoke at a meeting of the National Baby Welfare Council.