Stephen Fullarton (23 August 1919,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland - 29 February 2008,

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, Scotland) was the last survivor of the more than 500 Scottish men and women who volunteered to serve on the republican side in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

Early life

Fullarton, a native of Elvan Street,

Shettleston Shettleston (, ) is an area in the Glasgow#East End, east end of Glasgow in Scotland. Toponymy The origin of the name "Shettleston" is not clear and, like many place-names of possibly medieval origin, has had a multitude of spellings. A papal bu ...

, left school at 14 and worked to earn money for the upkeep of his family, a task made all the more onerous by the death of his father two years later. His early employment included a role scooping up manure from local streets to sell on, but he eventually worked his way to a

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

engineering apprenticeship. Through 1937, Fullarton saw

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of events in Spain which were to push him into action. "It was the bombing of civilians that really got on my nerves. I would go to the cinema and see that on the newsreel, see the women running with the bairns in their hands, eyes turned skywards for the planes, to see if they were coming." He began to attend street meetings, listening to and imbibing the words of charismatic

soap-box A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment ...

orators such as the returning

International Brigade The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigades existed for two ...

r James Maley, a recent prisoner of war. Fullarton became increasingly involved with the cause of republican Spain, collecting money and non-perishable foods, and chalking local roads with announcements of street meetings. For him, the next step, volunteering for action in Spain, was merely a logical progression of actions rather than an ideological decision or the result of any coercion by local political groups.

Spanish Civil War & World War 2

In early 1938, with the Communist Party having agreed to his suitability for Spain, Fullarton informed a local friend, Willie Gauntlet, of the news. Gauntlet replied: "Oh. I'll go too." This was hardly atypical of the area – from Fullarton's close and the four surrounding it, he, Gauntlet and two other men, Jimmy Reid and Willie Dougan, were to serve in Spain. In March 1938, aged 18, Fullarton set off by train from Glasgow Central for

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alongside five other Scottish volunteers. In London, they purchased weekend train tickets for Paris so as not to arouse the suspicions of the authorities (Britain's

non-interventionist Non-interventionism or non-intervention is commonly understood as "a foreign policy of political or military non-involvement in foreign relations or in other countries' internal affairs". This is based on the grounds that a state should not inter ...

government strictly forbade anyone from volunteering to fight in Spain, and invoked the 1870 Foreign Enlistment Act to make it illegal for them to do so). From Paris, volunteers were transferred to the Spanish border for their surreptitious journey on foot across the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

. Having entered Spain, Fullarton was sent for a brief period of military training at

Figueres Figueres (; ) is the capital city of Alt Empordà county, in the Girona region, Catalonia, Spain. The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Dalí Theatre and Museum, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which att ...

, although this proved to be basic at best: fake wooden rifles were distributed for practice due to a shortage of the real thing. He was then assigned to the Major Attlee Company and in the early summer of 1938 moved to the Chabola Valley in preparation for the republican side's crossing of the River Ebro. Fullarton bonded with his fellow volunteers and attended lectures on political theory and ideology. "People would quote Lenin and Stalin by the yard. I realised how ignorant I was about these things. I didn't know about them at that time." When the

Battle of the Ebro The Battle of the Ebro (, ) was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War and the greatest, in terms of manpower, logistics and material ever fought on Spanish soil. It took place between July and November 1938, with fighting mainly ...

began in July 1938, Fullarton was at the centre of the action amidst relentless German aerial bombardment. "Every day we got it – an average of six or seven times. Twenty or 30 of them would come over and give us all they had, then strafe us with the machine guns", he said. Fullarton was at high risk, and during intense fighting he was shot through the stomach. He lay, prone and silent, for several hours so as not to be identified by Franco's Nationalists. Without anaesthetics, doctors probed to find the bullet in his body with a long needle. As he wrote home from his sickbed: "The bullet made an ugly hole but I will soon be OK again. These explosive bullets that the fascists are using make a helluva mess of you. It enters you and only makes a small hole, but when it is inside it explodes and where it comes out it blows all the flesh with it." After a period of convalescence in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, on 23 December 1938, Fullarton was transported back to

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, aged 19. Back in

he struggled to find work, his name tainted by association with the Spanish war, an experience repeated when he tried to join the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. Fullarton was eventually able to join the RAF during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, serving in

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. This, however, did not stop the Foreign Office writing to him demanding a fee for the money it had paid towards his repatriation from Spain.

Later life

Following his war years, Fullarton resumed work as an engineer and started a family. He read assiduously, enjoying the works of

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

and

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

in particular, giving himself the education his tough upbringing had cut short. He and his wife Isabella MacDonald Fullarton (died 1968) had three children.

References

External links

ObituaryFindarticles.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fullarton, Stephen 1919 births 2008 deaths Military personnel from Glasgow Royal Air Force personnel of World War II British people of the Spanish Civil War International Brigades personnel Scottish communists People from Shettleston