Nicoll, Arthur Reid (Oral history)

British political commissar and officer served with British Anti-Tank Bty, 15th International Bde in Spain, 5/1937-10/1938

REEL 1 Background in Dundee, GB, 1903-1936: family; education; employment; marriage and joining Communist Party of Great Britain, 1923; activities with Communist Party of Great Britain; nature of Communist Party of Great Britain in Dundee. Aspects of volunteering for International Bdes in GB, 12/1936: initial rejection, 12/1936; recruitment criteria for volunteers; family’s reaction to his volunteering; story of returning from Spain for medical treatment and his attempts to get back there, 1937. Recollections of period as political commissar and officer with British Anti-Tank Bty, 15th International Bde in Spain, 5/1937-10/1938: machine gun training at Madrigueras; joining unit; opinion of anti-tank guns; duties as political commissar; staging plays; writing on wall newspapers; supply problems; political education; use of Spanish language; relations with Spanish troops; prior recollection of journey to Spain. REEL 2 Continues: journey to Spain, 5/1937; arrival at Figueras; reaction to Spanish food; impressions of Spanish civilians; firing on Nationalist machine gun posts in churches at Belchite; opinion of Catholic Church; eating paella in Valencia; opinion of American and Soviet trucks; effects of lack of supplies; degree of prior knowledge of situation in Spain; financial support for family; soldiers’ pay; question of conscription in Spanish Republican Army; teaching literacy to Spanish troops; leave; opinion of unit morale; role of political commissars. REEL 3 Continues: appointment as political commissar; question of ranks and promotion in unit; discipline; unit reaction to orders on saluting and creation of officers’ mess; memories of Hugh Slater; background to Nicoll’s appointment as battery commander; relations within battery; role of political commissar in dealing with problems.