Luis Bolín
Luis Antonio Bolín Bidwell (1897 Málaga; 3 September 1969) was a Spanish lawyer, journalist and trade unionist, Head of the National Union of Catering and Allied Attorney in Parliament during the first four legislatures of Francoist Spain.
Early life
Bolín was born into a well-to-do family of Swedish descent in Malaga, Spain in 1897. He studied at the universities of Granada and Madrid, and later in London.
Career
During WWI he worked in France as a journalist. In 1920, during the period of the Second Spanish Republic he was press attaché at the Spanish Embassy in London. He also became a correspondent for the conservative and pro-monarchy Spanish newspaper ABC and in 1921 he became a member of the information section of the League of Nations.
Spanish Civil War
In February 1936, Bolín played an important role in the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War, when Captain Cecil Bebb and Major Hugh Pollard piloted a de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft to the Canary Islands, taking General Franco from the Canaries to Tetuan via Casablanca. The flight itself was planned over lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, where Bolín met with Douglas Francis Jerrold, the conservative Roman Catholic editor of The English Review. Bolín and Jerrold later persuaded Pollard to join the enterprise,[1] and Pollard in turn recruited Bebb as pilot, plus his daughter Diana, and a friend, as "cover".[2][3]
In return for his assistance, Bolín was appointed by Franco honorary Captain of the Legion. He also became General Franco's chief press officer, and during the Civil War he was responsible for taking journalists on tours of the various battlefields.
Later life
In 1967 he published his memoirs, Spain, the Vital Years.[4] He died in 1969.
References
- ↑ Packard, Eleanor, and Packard, Reynolds, Balcony Empire: Fascist Italy at War Retrieved 10 July 2012
- ↑ Alpert, Michael, A New international history of the Spanish Civil War Retrieved March 6, 2010
- ↑ Robert H. Whealey: Hitler And Spain January 2011
- ↑ Southworth, Herbert R., Conspiracy and the Spanish Civil War: The Brainwashing of Francisco Franco Retrieved 10 July 2012
External links
- Photograph and brief biography of Bolin Retrieved 10 July 2012
