United Kingdom

The Basque community of the United Kingdom was formed not by economic emigration but by war. What there is begins in 1936 and is a direct consequence of the conflict: the Delegation of the Basque Government in London, the almost four thousand children evacuated on the steamer Habana, and the Basque house that opened in the middle of the Second World War to bring together those who had stayed. That double inheritance is still in view: today’s Basque centre, recognised in 1999, lives alongside an association devoted to the memory of the children of 1937 and to their descendants.

The Delegation came first. In December 1936 the Basque Government opened in London the second Delegation it had outside the Spanish state (see the Basque Government in London).² Five months later, in May 1937, almost four thousand Basque children reached Southampton on the steamer Habana (see the children of 1937).³⁴

Those who stayed had a home in the middle of the world war. In 1942, under the responsibility of Manuel de Irujo, a Euzko Etxea was set up in London to bring together the community in the United Kingdom. It met for the first time in July of that year and, despite the economic hardships of the war, organised social activities.²

More than half a century later came today’s Basque centre. The London Basque Society was already up and running when, in 1999, it was entered in the United Kingdom’s register of societies and recognised by the Basque Government (see the Basque community today).⁵¹