Noreen Branson (16 May 1910 – 25 October 2003) was a British communist activist, historian, founder of Revolt newspaper, and a life-long member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). In 1931 she married fellow communist and International Brigadeer, Clive Branson, and in 1934 she carried out a mission for Harry Pollitt to smuggle funding to Indian communists resisting the British colonial occupation of India. The experience of losing her parents sparked her life-long interest in anti-imperialist and anti-war politics. Her grandparents raised her with bourgeois and aristocratic values, and presented her as a debutante in court in 1928. Noreen Branson married Clive Branson in June 1931, and two years later the couple had their only child, the future artist Rosa Branson. In early 1938 Noreen's husband Clive joined the International Brigades to fight against Nazi backed nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, however he was captured on the 3rd of April and was kept prisoner for 8 months.
Second World War
Come the beginning of the World War II, Noreen Branson signed up to become an air raid warden. Inspired by her work as an air raid warden, her husband Clive included Noreen's likeness in his painting Bombed Women and Searchlights (1940) which is currently held by the Tate art museum in London.
Death and legacy
Branson died on 25 October 2003. She was survived by her daughter Rosa Branson who was born in 1933 and is a painter.
- Room At The Bottom: National Insurance in the Welfare State (1960) as Katherine Hood