Delmer Berg: Soldier and activist who became the last known American to have fought in the Spanish Civil War

Berg was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which defended the Spanish government from General Franco

Berg: ‘I was a supporter of the Spanish working people and I wanted to go and help them’ (AP)

Delmer Berg, who has died at the age of 100, was the last known American survivor of the Spanish Civil War. He was one of around 2,800 members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who defended the Spanish government from General Franco and his forces.

He explained last November why he went out to Spain. "I was a worker," he said. "I was a farmer. I was in support of the Spanish working people, and I wanted to go to Spain to help them." His friend Pat Cervelli said Berg, who she knew for three decades, became politically active early in life. He stayed in Spain several months and was wounded in a bombing at a monastery.

He was born in Anaheim in 1915, and spent part of his childhood on a farm. He later lived in Modesto, Calfornia and was the only white member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, as well as a representative of the Agricultural Workers Organising Committee He worked on housing discrimination and other issues and was a communist most of his life, drawing inquiries from the FBI.

Berg served two stints in the US military, once in the National Guard before going to Spain, and again in the East Indies during the Second World War. He later worked as a landscaper and a stonemason; he and his wife, June, who predeceased him, built a home of stone and recycled wood. In retirement he was an activist against nuclear weapons and US involvement in Central America, and monitored an election in Namibia.

Einsley Delmer Berg, soldier, activist and stomemason: born Anaheim, California 20 December 1915; twice married (two sons); died Columbia, California 18 February 2016.