Charlie Hutchison

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Charles ( Charlie)William Duncan Hutchison
Charlie Hutchison.jpg
Born(1918-05-10)10 May 1918
[Acre End street,Eynsham ]], Oxfordshire, England
Died1993 (aged 74–75)
Bournemouth Hospital England
Allegiance Spanish Republic (1936-1939)
 United Kingdom (1939-1946)
Service/branchEmblem of the International Brigades.svg International Brigade, British Battalion
British Army
Years of serviceInternational Brigade 1936–1939
British Army 1940–1946
Battles/warsBattle of Cable Street
Battle of Lopera
Dunkirk evacuation
Liberation of Belsen concentration camp
AwardsDunkirk Medal
Africa Star
Italy Star
France and Germany Star
War Medal
Defence Medal
Spouse(s)Patricia Holloway
Children3

Charles William Duncan Hutchison (1918–1993) was a British communist activist and soldier, most famous for being the only Mixed race member of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, as well as one of the youngest, one of the longest serving, and one of the first English-speaking volunteers.[1] Citing his experiences as a man of colour, he was ardent anti-fascist and was present at the Battle of Cable Street. Hutchison later took part in the Dunkirk evacuation and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp while serving in the British Army during the Second World War. Hutchison spent almost 10 years engaged in battles against various fascist forces throughout Europe, before starting a family in 1947 leaving London in 1961 with his wife Patricia and three children John, Susan and William ( Bill) and living the rest of his life quietly in South England.

Hutchison was also a life-long member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

Early life and orphanage[]

Charlie Hutchison was born in Witney, an English market town, west of Oxford.[2] He was the fourth of five children belonging to Lilly Rose (Harper) from Eynsham, and Charles Francis from the Gold Coast (now Ghana).[3] His father would make frequent visits to the Gold Coast, before unexpectedly disappearing, leaving Charlie Hutchison's mother in severe mental and financial hardship.[1] Soon afterwards, Charlie Hutchison and one of his sisters were temporarily taken to a National Children's Home and Orphanage in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.[1] After spending several years in the orphanage, Hutchison was allowed to leave and was reunited with his mother who was living in Fulham.[3]

By 1935, Hutchison had joined the Young Communist League (YCL) branch in Fulham and quickly became the branch's leader while also working as a lorry driver.[3] Alongside his newfound communist allies, on 4 October 1936, he took part in the Battle of Cable Street against the British Union of Fascists and played a part in forcing the fascists to abandon their march and retreat.[3]

Spanish Civil War[]

In December 1936, Hutchison went to Spain and joined the International Brigades to fight against the Nationalist faction supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during the Spanish Civil War. Becoming a machine-gunner, he was joined by many fellow London activists including Winston Churchill's nephew Esmond Romilly, Charles Darwin's great-grandson John Cornford, Communist Party intellectual Ralph Winston Fox.[1] The British Battalion had not yet been fully formed by the time Hutchison first arrived in Spain, so he joined the British and Irish dominated No. 1 Company of the mainly French Marseilla.[4] Hutchison was not only one of the earliest British volunteers and one of the youngest but was also the only black or mixed-race British volunteer to join the International Brigade. When asked why he fought in Spain, Hutchison said: "I am half black, I grew up in the National Children's Home and Orphanage. Fascism meant hunger and war".[3] During his service, his superior officers described him as "hard working", and commented on how developed his political views were for his age.[3]

Hutchison fought for the International Brigade during almost the entirety of the war and was sent to the front-line to fight in the Battle of Lopera shortly after arriving in Spain.[5] During this battle, his fellow communist volunteers Fox and Cornford were both killed, and Hutchison was badly wounded.[1] According to Bill Alexander of the British Battalion, Hutchison refused to be sent back to Britain and instead served as an ambulance driver for the 5th Republican Army Corps.[4] In April 1937, Hutchison's mother contacted the Republican government and pleaded with them to force him to return to Britain.[4] Hutchison requested temporary leave, yet due to a logistics blunder, his leave was never granted. He continued to serve the Spanish Republic until December 1938, when he returned to Britain to continue his activism as a member of the (CPGB).[6]

Second World War[]

Soon after returning to the UK, Hutchison barely had time to conduct further communist activism when Britain entered World War II. He immediately joined the British military and served in France before taking part in the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation.[6] Afterwards, he served in Northern Africa, fought through Italy, and by 1944 was serving with the British Army in Iran. Near the end of the war, he fought in France and into Germany, where he was among the soldiers who took part in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945.[6]

Death and legacy[]

After the end of his military service in 1946, Hutchison returned to Fulham and in 1947 married a fellow communist called Patrica Holloway. He resumed his work as a lorry driver and was an active member of the Transport and General Workers' Union, and was also active within anti-apartheid activism and nuclear disarmament.[1] Spending the remainder of his life as a dedicated communist activist, Hutchison died in Bournemouth in 1993, aged 74.[7]

In 2019, a memorial event was held at the Marx Memorial Library in London to celebrate the life of Charlie Hutchison as a part of Black History Month.[8] The attendants included 16 members of Hutchison's family, and students from Newham Sixth Form College who showcased their art and poetry projects to celebrate Hutchison's life and examine his reasons for fighting in Spain.[7] During the event, Hutchison's son John spoke of his experiences being raised by his father, describing Charlie's love of boxing and that their home was filled with "books by Marx, Salinger, Steinbeck and Hugo".[7] The research into Charlie Hutchison's life conducted by these same sixth-form students would lead to the creation of their college's 'African Studies Centre'.[9] One of the students called Noah Anthony Enahoro, an aspiring journalist and grandson of Nigerian independence leader Anthony Enahoro, was one of the researchers who presented their findings to Hutchison's family.[10]

Much of the information historians know about Charlie Hutchison's life has only been discovered very recently and has been recorded in few histories of the Spanish Civil War, two being Richard Baxell's Unlikely Warriors (2012), and the Communist Party of Britain's Red Lives (2020).[11][4]

See also[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Barnett, Marcus (31 October 2020). "Britain's Black International Brigadier". Tribune. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  2. ^ Baxell, Richard. "Charlie Hutchison: the only black Briton in the International Brigades". richard baxell info. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  4. ^ a b c d Baxell, Richard (2019). "Charlie Hutchison" (PDF). ¡NO PASARÁN!. International Brigade Memorial Trust. 3: 8–9.
  5. ^ "Charlie Huchison". communistparty.org.uk. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  7. ^ a b c Barnett, Marcus (21 October 2019). "Marx Memorial Library black history month event on Britain's only black international brigadier". The Morning Star. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  8. ^ "From the side streets: celebrating the life of Charlie Hutchison". Marx Memorial Library. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  9. ^ King, Jon (27 October 2020). "NewVIc hails African Studies Centre as 'first of its kind'". Newham Recorder. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  10. ^ "Q&A with Noah Enahoro". 17 January 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  11. ^ "PREVIEW: 'Red Lives". communistparty.org.uk. 27 April 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
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