SCOTLAND'S LAST LIVING LINK!!

       Thomas Watters, the last surviving Scot who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War, 1936/39 has died aged 99. Thomas had settled in Hertfordshire but was originally from Glasgow. In 1936 he was driving a Glasgow Corporation bus for a living when he decided along with approximately 500 other Scots to join the International Brigade to fight the fascist Franco's army. While in Spain he was a member of Scottish Ambulance Unit. In June 2009 at a ceremony in the Spanish Embassy in London he was honoured with an honorary Spanish citizenship. In 2010 he returned to Glasgow to give a speech at the rededication ceremony of the newly restored statue “Pasionaria” which stands on the north side of the River Clyde in Glasgow's city centre to commemorate the Spanish Civil War and the part played by the citizens of Glasgow.

       It is always sad to lose the last living link with any courageous working class event, and the volunteers from Scotland, and other parts of the world, who went to fight fascism in Spain were taking part in what can only be described as a courageous sacrifice for freedom for others, not just for themselves. We, the working class, should always remember our history, or we become a people without a history and without a culture.

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