Researcher: Aeneas Alexander Merchant, Stuyvesant '25

Andrew Lee Royce was born on July 14th, 1910 in Malcolm, Iowa. He stayed in his home town for his childhood, attending high school at Malcolm High School. After spending only a year there, Andrew joined the US army. He was stationed in Panama, and most likely served under the Panama Canal Division which was stationed there from 1921-1922. After returning home, Royce married Sara Davis in 1936. She was 18 at the time, having been born in 1918. In 1936, Royce also joined the Communist Party, and began to get involved with politics. After hearing about the Spanish Civil War in the summer and fall of 1936, Royce made his way to New York City in order to organize against the fascists. He moved into 1147 Park Avenue, and remained there while he applied for a passport. After receiving his passport on December 11th of 1936, the Communist Party arranged for him to set sail on the Normandie on December 26th. Royce and the other 80 volunteers, the first crop of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, landed in Le Havre on New Year's Eve. He and his fellow volunteers then made the trek down from France into Spain through the Pyrenees Mountains. Due to being one of the only members of the initial group of ALB volunteers with military experience, Royce was appointed commander of the second company of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion by Robert Hale Merriman on January 3rd of 1937. Royce led the company of 62 soldiers at the Battle of Jarama on February 27th, but was severely shell shocked. After participating in the Battle of Guadalajara just a few days later, Royce was reassigned to command of the armory until June. He then trained at Base Intendencia from October of 1937 to April of 1938. Once this training was completed and the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln Battalions had merged into the Lincoln-Washington Battalion, he returned as a member of the second company. He participated in the Ebro Offensive in August of 1938. Eventually though, he was forced to return home on December 15th of that same year. Royce was in the US army when WWII broke out, and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, stateside. After the war, he had his only child, Joseph Andrew Royce. At some point Andrew Lee Royce moved to Des Moines, where he died on March 14th, 2003. His wife died in 2012, but his son is currently still alive and practicing law in Des Moines. Royce also has two grandchildren, Rebecca and Emily Royce.

Sources

“Andrew Lee Royce (1910-2003) - Find a Grave...” Find a Grave. Accessed June 17, 2025. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/128703576/andrew-lee-royce#view-photo=100453157.
Ink, Social. “Royce, Andrew Lee.” The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, November 26, 2022. https://alba-valb.org/volunteers/andrew-lee-royce/.
“Jarama Series: Organization of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion.” The Volunteer, July 13, 2016. https://albavolunteer.org/2016/02/jarama-series-organization-of-the-abraham-lincoln-battalion/.
“Lincoln Battalion.” Wikipedia, May 23, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Battalion.
“New Jarama Series.” The Volunteer, July 13, 2016. https://albavolunteer.org/2015/12/blast-from-the-past-new-jarama-series/.
“Photo Unit #: E0002 Company 2, Lincoln-Washington Battalion Trench at North Pole, Teruel Sector: Jan 1938.” Harry Randall: Fifteenth International Brigade Films and Photographs: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids. Accessed June 17, 2025. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/alba_photo_011/images/x69p8dvx/.
“Photo Unit #: E0956-957 Lincoln-Washington Battalion, Company 2, Light Machine-Gunner, Marca: Jul 1938.” Harry Randall: Fifteenth International Brigade Films and Photographs: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids. Accessed June 17, 2025. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/alba_photo_011/images/1c59zwtj/.
Sara Royce Obituary - Des Moines, Iowa | legacy.com. Accessed June 18, 2025. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/sara-royce-obituary?pid=155417321.