IBMT Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott shares the story behind an unusual memorial in Carbeth, Scotland …

Carbeth is a small hamlet in the beautiful rural hills and woodlands of Stirlingshire, nine miles north of the former shipbuilding town of Clydebank. The history of the Carbeth Hutters begins when returning soldiers from the First World War were granted camping rights by the local landowner; Allan Barns Graham.

The area was noted as a magnet for the industrial working class living in the industrial conurbations along the Clyde and seeking escape and recreation within the river’s rural hinterland. The more robust hut structures developed from the seasonal tented camping sites.

The Hutters are a group, and a philosophy, which grew out of the First World War’s aftermath and the 'camping and trekking' explosion of the 1920s and 30s. The huts, associated camps and other parts of the area have strong links with the Clarion and the wider Labour movement.

Indeed, Rose Kerrigan, wife of leading International Brigade volunteer Peter, organised a camp there providing ante-natal classes for expectant mothers from these working-class communities in the 30s.

The Clarion Camp, with Clarion Hut, at Carbeth.

Having been aware for many years of Carbeth and its labour movement links, and keen to try and pin down rumoured links to the International Brigaders, I struck up an email conversation with Tom McKendrick, a Board member of the Carbeth Hutters Community Company. He has been incredibly helpful in both confirming several links to the Brigaders and in initiating a dialogue within the wider Carbeth Hutter community to hopefully help us pin down more detailed information and handed-down recollections.

He was familiar with the story that the camp and its surroundings had been used as an ad hoc training area for potential Brigaders, ideal for the purpose with varieties of terrain (forests, hillsides and open ground) and well away from the sight of unsympathetic authorities.

Evidence has also come down from Bob Grieve, who was a veteran attendee at the famous Craigallian Fire, a campfire site by Carbeth. His fellow ‘fire sitters’ were industrial workers and the unemployed and the talk was of Socialism and Communism. Grieve and others were aware that a number of those who fought in Spain had been fire-sitters at Craigallian.

His sons, Willie and Iain, recalled their father’s anecdote that returning Spanish Civil War veterans brought a different edge to the camping: He claimed a number kept weapons to hunt deer on the slopes of Ben Lomond and that the occasional exchange of shots with local gamekeepers was not unknown. The same website also mentions David McConnell, a fire sitter from Glasgow, who volunteered for Spain. Due to a hitherto undetected heart problem caused by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, he failed the medical but was nevertheless accepted, allegedly due to the intercession of a family friend: Harry Pollitt, Communist Party General Secretary.

But McConnell never made it. He was arrested by French police as he was crossing the Pyrenees and repatriated. British Secret Service files do indeed record him leaving the UK on a ferry in March 1938 but returning three days later.

Tom has also confirmed the story of a 'farewell weekend' at Carbeth, when girlfriends and comrades gathered to say goodbye to those who were about to depart for Spain. He has shared the following photographs, the first of which was taken at that event and another showing a group in uniform, taken in Spain, which shares some faces with the first.

Most importantly. he has also been able to confirm three names of Brigaders associated with Carbeth, which we have been able to link to biographies on the IBMT website: Thomas Flynn from Glasgow, who was killed at Chimorra in April 1937, Andrew Smith from Clydebank and Joseph Harkins, also from Clydebank, who fell at Gandesa in July 1938. (Tom had a fourth name; James Harkins, Joseph’s brother, but we haven’t been able to confirm his being in Spain.)

Following the deaths in Spain, a tree was planted by the family of one of the fallen and was formally designated as The Soldiers Tree. It survives, is still remembered by this name today and is located at 55°58’53”N, 4°21’42”W, within the Carbeth Hut site.

The Soldiers Tree today.

The story of the tree makes it possibly the oldest UK memorial to the fallen of the International Brigade, certainly the oldest in Scotland, and we have agreed to work with the Carbeth Hutters Community Company to supplement it with a formal, interpretative memorial. It has also been added to the IBMT’s official database of UK memorials.

Sources:
Tom McKendrick
Carbeth Hutters
Friends of Craigallian Fire

News from the annual Glasgow commemoration held on Saturday 21 September at La Pasionaria Statue, Custom House Quay …

Neil Anderson presided at the commemoration on behalf of hosts Hope not Hate Glasgow.

A large gathering heard speeches by Mike Arnott, IBMT Scotland Secretary, Africa Moreno, PCE Exterior, Nathan Hennerbry, MB Scotland Youth Committee, Jennifer McCarey, Glasgow TUC and Tommy Campbell, Aberdeen XV International Brigade Commemoration Committee.

La Pasionaria Statue, Custom House Quay, Glasgow.

Neil Hennerbry spoke about how the legacy of the brigaders featured in Hope not Hate’s anti-racist and anti-fascist work in the city. Mike Arnott shared recent research discoveries about the 1938 funeral in Vic, Catalunya, of young Glasgow nurse Chrissie Wallace and the newly rediscovered Soldiers Tree memorial at Carbeth. He also marked the death in August of Glaswegian Allan Craig, whose work to commemorate his father, Dundee-born brigader Allan Craig, had initiated the annual ceremony at Tarancón in Spain.

Africa Moreno of PCE Exterior.

Africa Moreno paid tribute to the memory of the Glasgow brigaders and their fight against fascism, and for democracy, in Spain. Nathan drew parallels between the fight in Spain and the current struggles against fascism and the far right across Europe, including in Scotland. Jennifer recounted the history of the Glasgow memorial, how La Pasionaria’s symbolism echoed the role of all Spain’s women, and the female volunteers, during the Civil War, and how its unveiling drew a small and very rare Glasgow phenomenon: a Tory street protest.

Tommy Campbell gave the background to the replica of Aberdeen’s famous Spanish Republican flag and performed a couple of poems, including Brian Bilston’s memorable ‘Why I dislike the Daily Mail’.

At the close of proceedings, RMT hosted a visit just along the riverside to see the Blockade Runners’ Memorial.

Attendees from Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen.