SCOTLAND: ANSWERING A CALL

SEVENTY FIVE years ago, in 1938, the International Brigades were disbanded. Never was there a better time to document and celebrate those Scots who fought, and often died, in the 20th century’s first international battle against fascism.

In many ways the term ‘Spanish Civil War’ is a misnomer. Most people knew it was no more than a rehearsal for an even bloodier conflict to come, and that the ideas being killed and died for – communism, revolution-ism, parliamentary democracy and fascism – would go on to shape the future of the entire world.

Some 549 men and women from Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Lothian farmlands and the Highlands are known to have left for what was then a distant and alien country. They went illegally, as the British Government had, shockingly, adopted a policy of non-intervention in the face of yet another European country falling to a Nazi ally.

The book, acknowledged in its foreword by Tony Benn as being ‘important and powerful’, is not only a culmination of extensive academic research but a personal gathering of information from relatives of those engaged in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.

Although the British, French, and American governments proclaimed support for the freely elected Spanish Republic, their every move in the war betrayed their preference for a victory by the rebel generals over a communist or, even worse, a revolutionary Spain. The Scottish volunteers crept over the border at Perpignan after an uncomfortable journey, many of them having covered long tracts of it on foot and with little to eat on the way. They fought together with Spaniards, Italians, Russians, Germans, Irish and many other nationalities at Albacete, Jarama, the Aragon Front and in the Battle for Madrid. More than 2000 British soldiers fought; over a quarter of those Scots that travelled never returned.

ALMOST a quarter of all British volunteers were from Scotland; more than most other countries by head of population. It was an extraordinary level of commitment, and defiance, for a small nation. People of all classes signed up for the fight against Franco’s version of ultra-conservative Catholicism, but the majority of those committed to the cause came from working-class areas such as Shettleston and Calton. Their stories, though, have never been adequately told. Daniel Gray has done them justice.

Mr Gray was perfectly placed in writing this book. A curator at the National Library of Scotland, he is in his element amongst archives and historical records, histories and memoirs. For Gray’s cleverly titled book, he has drawn on national and overseas sources, and has organised a very complex story into a well-constructed and compelling narrative. Daniel is a capable writer; his prose is unfussy, fluent and warm. Pointedly, he has squared the circle of producing accurate history while retaining a deep respect for those who archive and steward it. Homage to Caledonia is in no way hagiography – a chapter is dedicated on those Scots who supported Franco – but, Mr Gray’s admiration for those volunteers who risked their lives is subtle and elegant.

Daniel Gray has a remarkable intuitive sense in knowing when to let the soldiers, nurses and writers tell their own stories. Sydney Quinn’s testament, for instance, is expressed:

…Whenever I see the thousands of Spanish children streaming along the road away from the fascists, my thoughts revert back home, and I can see you and your brothers in the same circumstances if we don’t smash the fascist monsters here.

Mr Quinn wrote that paragraph to his family back in Glasgow on the eve of going into action against fascism.

Steve Fullarton wrote from the thick of battle:

… I found George Jackson lying stretched out. George came from Cowdenbeath … Charlie McLeod of Aberdeen was lying with his head on George Jackson’s chest. And Malcolm Smith was lying about a yard or so away. All were dead…

Gray studies the reasons for the Scots’ decision to volunteer. Over half were affiliated in one way or another to the Communist Party. Garry McCartney, a blacksmith from Dennistoun, commented:

…We weren’t fighting for communism; we just wanted to beat the fascists.

The personal letters of David Murray, a member of the Independent Labour Party, cast a fascinating light on Spanish anarchists and those who fought alongside them. The death of Larkhall’s Bob Smillie, for instance, whose death to this day still divides the Scottish left – did he die of natural causes or was he kicked to death by Spanish Communists? Ethel Macdonald, the so called ‘Scottish Scarlet Pimpernel’, who reported from within the anarchist camp in Barcelona, vehemently documents the belief in the latter. Mr Gray’s chapter on MacDonald is a revealing examination of the fault-lines on both the Scottish and Spanish left.

FOR the men and women who went to fight, or to help in whatever capacity they could, doctrinal differences were of little or no importance. Rather, a sense of solidarity – amongst the Scots themselves and the volunteers from countless countries – and a sense of fighting at an historic and honourable moment:

…One day we shall tell our children about the defence of Madrid; this epic story can never die in the pages of world history. I think of Jock Cunningham from Coatbridge out in Spain… leading his men fearlessly and unafraid, dancing with death.

Daniel Gray has written a deeply moving account of one part of human history that is thought-provoking and vividly emotional, not only of those 549 Scottish people, but of two nations – Scotland and Spain – battling with an evil that would soon darken the whole of Europe.

– ‘Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War’ written by Daniel Gray is published by Luath Press for £16.99.