ABSTRACT
Dave Springhall came to prominence as a youthful activist in 1923 when he was co-opted, as one of the younger communist party of great britain members, to join the young communist league National Council, but by then he had been dismissed from the Royal Navy for causing dissent. During the Spanish Civil War Springhall was to act as Political Commissar to the XIth International Brigade between January and March 1937, and play a key role in the campaign, acting as a link between the British base in Albacete and King Street. MI5's investigation of Springhall included scrutiny of his diary which revealed references to Ormond Uren of Special Operations Executive, and Ray Milne of secret intelligence service. Springhall had not only been an important spy in his own right, but he had also been a significant cog in a much greater organisation.
