Ola Que tal, Soy Bruce Fummey. Today I'm going to tell you about a Scottish hero of the Spanish Civil War, and she was a woman!
Now if you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history then hit the
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For books, further information, ways to support the channel, buy me a coffee, join the National Trust,
all that kind of stuff is in the description below. In the meantime let me tell you a story.
Now this is a memorial to those who served in the Spanish Civil War
in my hometown of Perth. Now it's not for Spanish who served in the war it's dedicated to the people
of Perth who left here to join the fight. This memorial was conceived, organized and
fundraised by a mate of mine, Paul Philippou. Now I know you're probably wondering, what's
a Greek Cypriot Londoner doing setting up a memorial to Scottish anti-fascists in Perth?
He's just that kind of guy. He's actually written a book called 'The Spanish Thermopylae' about Cypriot
volunteers during the Spanish Civil War and I'll leave a link to this book, along with one that he
published about George Orwell in Spain and one about today's hero all in the description below.
Now in case you don't know, the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936.
You could say that the Spanish Civil War was a conflict brought about when a democratically
elected coalition of Centrist, Socialist, Anarchist and Communist parties were overthrown
in a right-wing military coup that involved a bloody civil war with atrocities on both sides,
where the fascist insurgents of General Franco were supported by his allies, Hitler, Mussolini as well
as the Church and the landed classes, and the elected republican side was supported by Russia
and Mexico, while the key western powers of the US, UK and France sat on their hands in a policy of
non-alignment, that was really capitulation to the fascists but that would be a gross
oversimplification, so let's just say there was a civil war, it was in Spain, it was in
the 30s and the British Government didn't cover itself in glory, but some of its people did. 40,000
volunteers from around the world went to Spain to join and fight for the International
Brigade and with 550 volunteers, the nation who provided the biggest contingent was Scotland.
The volunteers formed the International Brigade. I wonder how international this is?
Let me know in the comment section below what country you're from. The UK Government banned
its citizens supplying or travelling to Spain to support a democratically elected Government
fight against fascist, terrorist insurgents. Despite this, Britons left home, travelled
through France to Spain in order to fight, risk and lose their lives in the International Brigade.
Would you? Would I? 12 people from my hometown did, and so did the young woman from Motherwell.
Her name was Ethel McDonald. she was born in 1909 in roughly the same place and time as the famous
Manchester United Manager, Sir Matt Busby. She left home at 16, around the time that another Scotsman, John
Logie Baird first demonstrated the television. Now I've got a video on John Logie Baird
right, it was really interesting. I'll leave a link at the end. This young lass had joined
and become active in the Independent Labour Party. Oh I've also got a video on the incredible rise
of Ramsay Macdonald to be the first Labour Prime Minister. It's on my channel, you'll find it easily.
Anyway, Ethel was a hardy lass fae Lanarkshire. Keir Hardy, another Lanarkshire boy who
was one of the founders and the first MPs of what would go on to become the Labour Party.
I haven't made a video about him ... yet. The point is that there was a time where ordinary working-class
Scottish people craved knowledge, learned to lean to the left and made a huge impact. So Ethel got
involved as an administrator and campaigner with an anarchist organization. She became fluent in
French and German, as you do, and having left school with no qualifications, developed highly effective
writing skills, and by that I mean eloquence and rhetoric of language, the mechanics of writing
we're a given okay. Anyway in 1936, as the Spanish Civil War was starting, the office in Glasgow
received a call from Spain for somebody to go and report on what was happening. The stance of the US,
and the UK Government meant that the embattled Spanish democrats wanted English-speaking folk
to know what was going on. Despite her and the organization being penniless, Ethel travelled to
Barcelona to show support, the Scottish Anarchist Movement for their Spanish compatriots and from
her base in Barcelona, Ethel would write and send back reports for anarchist publications, and for
wider distribution, but remember John Logie Baird? Communications were changing, and when an English
language radio station was set up to transmit to the world, she became the voice of free Spain. As
battle raged throughout Spain. She sent messages to call for support to the English-speaking world
on radio waves, which pierced the barriers erected by supposedly democracy supporting western nations,
who talked non-alignment, but practiced complicity with fascist regimes. As Hitler's Stukas dive-bombed
British members of the International Brigade at Hamara, the British Government choked off
supplies to the democratically elected Government, for whom its citizens fought, and the voice
of a wee lass fae Motherwell chirped like Jiminy Cricket to international recognition.
As Franco's brutal advance engulfed Madrid, the Spanish Government retreated to Barcelona.
At the same time questions surrounding the death of a key anarchist commander
meant that the coalition started to splinter. As the Communists gained more control over Government,
they turned on the Anarchists. On May the 3rd, 1937, they stormed the telephone exchange, which the
Anarchists had held. Sandbags had been placed to defend against fascists. Now new defences were
needed for barricades between previous allies closer to home. Now during three days of fighting,
Ethel played a support role, foraging for food and filling ammunition cartridges.
As the fascist tighten their grip over Spain, the Communist-backed Government forces
squeezed Catalonia. A barrage of bullets blazed back and forth across the Barcelona Boulevard.
I was left with a lot of Bs in a Scrabble game once.
When the telephone exchange fell, the arrest of the Anarchists began in earnest
and Ethel's voice was no longer heard. Did radio silence mean death?
No, it meant a change of role. She had been on the side of the Government fighting against fascists,
now as an Anarchist, she was an enemy of the crumbling Spanish state. Many were leaving
Catalonia and crossing the border to France, but that was an escape route blocked to Ethel.
There were now Government guards at the border. To attempt to cross without a visa would mean capture.
To attempt to get a visa would mean capture. For now she worked underground, getting messages to
and from prison, finding sailors of international boats at the docks who might smuggle out other
activists in danger, always In danger herself. With a Damoclean sword above her, pursuers behind, and
threats on every side she navigated the labyrinth, freeing others before plunging herself back into
the struggle. She became known internationally as the Scottish Scarlet Pimpernel constantly
under threat of arrest. How long could it last? At 1am one morning she found out, as Government
assault guards burst into a room and whisked her away with brutal treatment, but without charge.
Here is a memorial to James Moir. Now no body lies here, because he was one of the soldiers of freedom
who left Perth, never to return. Along with a third of the Scots who had left these shores, he died for
democracy, for freedom, and to end fascism. Still, on April 1st, 1939, General Franco's fascists finally
claimed victory over Spain, although the British Government had recognised the Franco regime a
month earlier, and hailed Hitler's promise of peace in our time six months before that. I suppose the
British establishment thought that fascism was less of a threat than a democratically elected
people's republic, and so the appeasement of Hitler and forty years of Franco's fascism in Spain that
saw more murders and political killings than the war itself. I was at school before Spain finally
returned to democracy after their brief flirtation in the 1930s. Ethel McDonald? British Labour politician
Fenner Brockway managed to get Ethel released. Later, as General Franco closed in on Barcelona prepared
to bombard the town, the British Government arranged for its citizens in Spain to be
evacuated via a neutral zone at the harbour. Whilst Ethel was questioned, she was allowed to leave.
She continued to campaign, gave speeches, wrote articles and published for the anarchic cause.
She later contracted Multiple Sclerosis and died in Glasgow in 1960. Franco outlived Ethel,
and you know, as I look around the world today, I worry that democracy
isn't guaranteed. It's even more fragile than a lassie fae Motherwell, that fascism
wasn't defeated, it only took a standing count, and there's another round to fight.
I wonder how many Ethel McDonald's there are out there? Leave a thumbs up below to
say that you care, not for me, but for Ethel. In the meantime here's a video about John Logie
Baird that I mentioned earlier. Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.