of British poets edited by Carmelo Medina Casado and published in Madrid in 2007. His poetry was previously unpublished. He also wrote an autobiography, which was never published. Spanish citizenship and IBMT In his retirement Lesser frequently visited Spain. In 1996 he was among the International Brigade veterans who returned to Spain to be offered honorary Spanish citizenship, an experience he described as "remarkable, really remarkable," and commented "I don't mind admitting I was moved to tears." The offer, however, made to all surviving veterans of the International Brigades, was accompanied by the proviso that the veterans would have to renounce their own nationalities, which few were prepared to do. Lesser was a founding member of the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT), an organisation established in 2001 to educate the public in the history of the International Brigades and remember those who died in the Spanish Civil War. Lesser was chair of the IBMT from 2006, succeeding fellow International Brigade veteran Jack Jones who became IBMT President. Following Jones's death in April 2009 Lesser refused to succeed him and remained chair until his death. Following the re-election of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) government (see 2008 Spanish general election) the Cortes Generales passed legislation confirming the right of the surviving brigadiers to Spanish citizenship without renouncing their own nationalities. On 9 June 2009 Lesser and Lou Kenton were among seven volunteers (six from Britain and one from Ireland) who received Spanish passports and citizenship as a gesture of thanks. Carles Casajuana, Spain's ambassador to Britain, told the veterans that "Your efforts were not in vain. Your ideals are part of the foundations of our democracy in Spain today." Lesser gave a speech in fluent Spanish, linking the Spanish Civil War to the fight against the British National Party, who he argued "have the same filthy policy of racism, which started off in Germany with Hitler's campaign against the Jews." He also spoke of his sadness that so few of his comrades were still alive to witness the gesture, and quoted Laurence Binyon's "Ode of Remembrance": Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. At the end of his speech Lesser gave a raised fist salute. In his book Unlikely Warriors, historian Richard Baxell wrote that Lesser "spoke clearly and eloquently ...