Len
Crome,
the son of a Jewish businessman,
was
born in Latvia on 14th April, 1909. After being educated locally he
went to Scotland and studied medicine in
Edinburgh.
Crome found work as a doctor
in Blackburn but concerned by the growth of fascism
in Europe, volunteered to join a Scottish ambulance unit that was
helping the Republican forces fighting in the Spanish
Civil War. Crome served in Madrid and
after the death of Dr. Mieczyslaw Domanski, he was promoted to the
35th Division's chief medical officer.
Crome worked on the frontline
until Juan Negrin decided to withdraw the
International Brigades in September
1938 in an attempt to achieve international mediation.
When Crome returned
to England he joined the Communist Party.
He settled in London and worked as a GP
in Camberwell and on the outbreak of the Second
World War used the skills developed in Spain
to train air-raid wardens.
In December 1942
Crome joined the British
Army and
served in the Medical Corps in North Africa.
During the Allied advance in Italy, Crome
commanded the 152 Field Ambulance Unit and won the Military Cross
at Monte
Cassino.
In 1945 he was commandant of the British military hospitals in Naples.
After the war
Crome discovered that his mother, father and sister had died in Concentration
Camps after the German
Army had
invaded Latvia.
Crome returned
to London and studied neuropathology at
the Maudsley Hospital and later worked as a pathologist at the Fountain
Hospital in Tooting. He remained active in politics and was secretary
of the Society for Cultural Relations with the Soviet Union. He was
also chairman of the International Brigade
Association.
Crome wrote several books
including Pathology of Mental Retardation
(1967) and Unbroken: Resistance and Survival
in the Concentration Camps (1988). Len
Crome died
on 6th May 2001.
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