Pere Bosch Gimpera. L'Exili britànic (1939-1940)

Abstract

After honouring his responsibilities as president of the University of Barcelona (1933-1939) and Minister for Justice in the Catalan government (1937-1939), Pere Bosch Gimpera went into exile in February 1939. This was the start of a long personal, political, ideological and scientific journey that took him to the UK, Colombia and Mexico until his death in 1974. He never returned to Catalonia. This paper analyses the time he spent in Britain from the spring of 1939 until the summer of 1940, and his unsuccessful attempts to establish a solid professional and financial position at Oxford University; his work with Carles Pi i Sunyer as delegates of the Catalan government in London; his reports to the British authorities on various aspects of the Civil War in Catalonia and his personal reflections on the meaning of the war for Catalonia and Catalans, as well as the proposed reorganisation of Spain from a federal perspective that respects Catalonias political, social and economic identity.