Never forget

This is a sculpture entitled 'La Madre del Emigrante' (The Migrant's Mother), by Ramon Muriedas, and it can be found at Rinconin park on the seafront at Gijon, Spain.

It is a tribute to the thousands of children who were taken to safety from this part of the country during the Spanish Civil War.

Refugees ended up in a number of countries - Britain, Belgium, France and even Mexico among them - but Gijon's children were shipped to the Soviet Union.

And from what I have read, few made it back after the civil war because Stalin wanted to keep them and Franco didn't want to to receive them, such were the political complexities of the time.

As a father, I can't help but feel deep sadness at the turmoil faced by these poor children all those years ago.

I am planning a photography project on the civil war, taking pictures of individuals in the UK still trying to keep the memory alive of the combatants and refugees.

One of the people I am hoping to photograph is one of the Basque refugees who left Bilbao as a little boy and ended up spending the rest of his life in Britain.

Next year marks the 80th anniversary of the start of what was a brutal, bloody conflict and I think it is important that it is not forgotten.