Paco Robles, one of the last survivors of the largest single-day migration into the United Kingdom, has died aged 99. He arrived in Southampton on 23 May 1937 aboard the SS Habana, a former cruise ship carrying approximately 3,800 Basque children fleeing the Spanish civil war.
Escape from war-torn Spain
Born Francisco Robles in León, northwestern Spain, to Martina, a maid, and Germillano, a Socialist party deputy, Paco moved with his family to the Basque Country. His father worked in a steelworks in Bilbao. After the bombing of Guernica in April 1937 by German and Italian planes supporting General Franco, his parents secured places for him and his younger sister, Maria Jesus, on the Habana.
Life in British colonies
Upon arrival, the UK government refused public funding for the children's care. Paco lived in volunteer-run residential homes known as colonies, where he met my aunt Chloe Vulliamy, who ran the first two hostels he stayed in and the last to close in 1951. In 2017, Paco unveiled a blue plaque at the first house in Wherstead Park, Suffolk, and spoke emotionally of Chloe as his surrogate mother. He was delighted to find the tree he had climbed there still standing 80 years later.
Struggles and survival
After Franco's victory, he demanded the return of the niños, but many, including Paco, had nothing to return to. His father was imprisoned, the family home stolen, and his mother struggled to survive. Paco remained in Britain, working in a munitions factory, a bakery, and as a farm labourer.
Identity and legacy
Like many Habana refugees, Paco felt neither fully Spanish nor British. He maintained Spanish connections, supporting the Basque Children's Association and visiting a Spanish social centre in London. He married Maria Román, a factory worker, in 1949; she died in 2012. He is survived by their three children, Elena, Fernando, and Maria, six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
