Robert Jasper (1914-1999)  – Sussex Brigader

Robert Sydney Jasper was born in Brighton on 27th November 1914, his father Charles Herbert Jasper dying aged 35 in April 1915 in Brighton.  Robert Jasper later worked as a machinist. He gave his address as 15 Whitecross Street, Brighton when he volunteered for Spain.

Whitecross Street – unfortunately no. 15 is long demolished

MI6 records show that Robert Sydney Jasper left for France on 1st April 1938 suspected of being a “recruit for Spain”.   He was wounded at Gandesa, but survived to return to the UK with the main group of survivors in December 1938.   The England and Wales register for 1939 shows him living at 39, Chelmsford Road, Portsmouth, his occupation given as an aircraft bench fitter.   In December 1940 Robert Jasper married Cynthia Irene Blow in Gosport.   Jasper died in June 1999 on the Isle of Wight, aged 84.

Paying tribute to Robert Jasper on 18 September 2021