A5, 36 pages, full colour printing, saddle stitched, 2023

They came from Arran and Millport, to defend democracy and freedom in Spain.

Told for the first time and based on rigorous research, this is the story of two young men who grew up on the Clyde islands and fought in the Spanish Civil War. It is a tale which straddles air, land and sea, parliaments and poets, fiestas, fierce battles, and a legacy of internationalism that is rightly remembered in Spain, Scotland and across the world to this day.

We catch up with Bertie Milton, who grew up on the Isle of Arran, after he has disappeared from his job as a postman in Kilmarnock. He soon arrives in Spain to join the International Brigade, the volunteer units who came from all over the world to defend the Spanish Republic from a right-wing uprising.

We learn of the unique contribution of Millport's William Bamborough, an avid young aviator who signed up to pilot planes for the threatened Republic soon after the war began. He later returned as a merchant navy blockade runner. When his ship was sunk by a Nazi bomber, Bamborough and his crew had to row to the Catalan coast.

There is also George McLeod of Stornoway, who had left the Outer Hebrides for Canada a decade earlier, and fought as part of an artillery unit.

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