| Blue Plaque for Aston Colony |
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| The Unveiling |
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| On Thursday 17th July 2003, a blue plaque was unveiled by Cora Portillo at Westfield House, Aston, near Bampton in Oxfordshire. This was to com- memorate the use of the house (then called St Joseph's) as a haven for 40 Basque refugee children between 1937 and 1939. The plaque, commissioned by the Basque Children of '37 Associa- tion : UK, also acknowledged the con- tribution of local volunteers. Cora Portillo was an undergraduate in Modern Languages at St Hilda'a College, Oxford, in 1937. She could not go to Spain to pursue her studies because of the civil war, and was ad- vised by her tutor to visit the Basque children's colonies in Oxfordshire, where she could not only practise her Spanish but also help with the children... It was at Aston colony that Cora met her future husband, Luis Portillo... Colin Carritt, of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, did sterling work in organising the blue plaque project, and many local dignitaries came to the unveiling...A minibus was hired by the Association to take ten Basque ninos from London to the ceremony. Amongst these were two of the former residents of the Aston colony, Mauri Antolin and Luis Santamaria, for whom the visit revived fond memories... (From an article in the August Newslatter of the Basque Children of '37 Association : UK). |
| Cora Portillo unveiling the plaque. |
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| We will add more relevant articlesand photographs soon. |
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