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02 Aug 12 - 02:30 PM (#3385201) Subject: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GeoffLawes OTTO ESTENSEN: BRIGADISTA & MANDOLINISTA Spanish Civil War memoires of British and Irish International Brigaders have sometimes noted the musical skills of the Anti-Tank Battery. The man most frequently recalled is Miles Tomalin who can be seen in photographs playing the recorder. PHOTO OF THE ANTI -TANK BATTERY MUSICIANS OF THE 15th BRIGADE However, there is another volunteer in this photograph holding a mandolin. Duncan Longstaff suggested here that it was Otto Estensen and I have just received a letter from Otto Estensen's daughter, the actor, Elizabeth Estensen, which confirms this. She has given me permission to reproduce her letter, which also contains other interesting information about Otto and the anti-tank battery. Dear Mr Lawes, Thank you for your letter. I didn't see it until Saturday, although I note that it is dated 11th July. Yes, the mandolin player is my father, Otto Estensen. I still have his mandolin - he bought it in a pawn shop in Woolwich in the late 1920s when he was on tugs in the Merchant Navy. My father died in January 1979, I was in my twenties, his only child, I can only remember bits of what he told me about his time in Spain. Since then I have become increasingly interested and regret that I didn't ask him more about it. There's no one left to tell me now. He was in Spain for the duration of the Civil War. He was wounded 3 times, sent back home once but returned. When he decided to join the International Brigade, he met a contact in Paris who accompanied him through France across the Pyrenees and into Spain. His mandolin was the only thing that he took with him. As you know there were several musicians in the Anti-Tank Battery and my understanding is that they had music sessions as often as they could, some of the music was Spanish, some they wrote about the war itself I imagine to keep their morale high. Otto played by ear, he played classical pieces he'd heard and enjoyed. In my lifetime I remember him often reaching for the mandolin and playing whatever came to mind. I have a bundle of letters sent from Spain and in one of them I think there are verses to a song they wrote, I need to go through them all again it's years since I looked at them. I'm afraid that he didn't have any recordings and my knowledge of the music they played is - nil really. I don't think he would have sung himself, he only played. I'm sorry that I can't be of more help, I'll fish out those letters and tell you what I can. Sincerely, Elizabeth. (Elizabeth Allen nee Estensen) If anyone can add more information about Otto Estensen, the Anti-Tank battery and its music I would be very grateful and I will add it to the archive of information in the Mudcat perma-thread Songs in English about the Spanish Civil War, HERE |
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02 Aug 12 - 03:09 PM (#3385222) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GUEST,999 General overview here. |
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14 Aug 12 - 09:50 AM (#3390021) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GeoffLawes I asked the historian Richard Baxell if he had any information about Otto Estensen and he replied with this: This is a brief summary of what I have on Otto: Born Thormely on Tees Jewish Address: Halcroft, Redear Rd, Ormesley, Middlesborough Occupation: ABS aboard Ship Member of National Union of Seamen, Middlesbrough branch since 1925 Joined CP 1933 Arrived Spain 18 May 1937 IB ID no. 1103 Served with anti-tanks and British battalion Repatriated December 1938 Thank you Richard. Richard is the author of British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades 1936-1939, which is an excellent authoritative account of the British and Irish contribution to the SCW. http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Volunteers-Spanish-Civil-International/dp/0955419905 |
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14 Aug 12 - 10:08 AM (#3390030) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GUEST,999 ?? Thornaby-on-Tees ?? |
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14 Aug 12 - 10:18 AM (#3390035) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GUEST,John Foxen Fascinating, Geoff. Thanks for uncovering this. |
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14 Aug 12 - 03:12 PM (#3390148) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GeoffLawes GUEST,999 ?? Thornaby-on-Tees ?? The information will have been taken from Otto Estensen's file in the Moscow archive of the International Brigades. This will have been written by hand and therefore Thormely on Tees may be a misreading. Is there a Thormley on Tees? Thanks for the emergency call on this Guest 999 |
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14 Aug 12 - 05:05 PM (#3390188) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GeoffLawes I have just heard from Elizabeth Estensen who has corrected a few items of information in the above summary. As Guest 999 suggested, Otto was born in Thornaby-on-Tees (not Thormley)and in Redcar Road (not Redear) . Also, he was not Jewish- his name being a cosequence his father's Norwegian origins. |
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25 Aug 21 - 09:23 AM (#4117810) Subject: RE: Otto Estensen: Brigadista & Mandolinista From: GeoffLawes More on this Mudcat thread /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=128093&messages=221# |