A Time of Tyrants

by Trevor Royle

  Within four years of that breakthrough, the SNP scored an impressive electoral success, winning the General Election in May 2011 by taking 69 of 129 seats and emerging as the country’s first majority government. After his party’s breakthrough, First Minister Alex Salmond announced that he would proceed with plans to hold a referendum on Scottish independence.

  All this had come about during the course of the so-called ‘short’ twentieth century, which began in 1914 when the world went to war, and ended with the breakdown of communism and the equally sudden collapse of Cold War confrontation in the century’s last decade. Concern about Scottish home rule bookended that period, but its middle portion was dominated by what has been called the ‘high point of modern British unionism’ when Scotland at war embraced a sense of British nationhood as at no other period in the country’s history.4

  On one level that assessment is not far off the mark. There were many types of glue which kept the British fabric intact during the Second World War – from Churchill’s soaring rhetoric which preached the concept of patriotic independence, to the overwhelming and well-understood need to defeat a vicious fascist enemy – but within the interstices of political life in Scotland the feelings of nationhood were never far away. It was never expressed in a vainglorious or pretentious way, but from the concept of being British and being part of a successful team was born a belief that in the post-war years anything might be possible when people united to do the best for themselves and their country. That was the real legacy of the Second World War for a people who had learned that it was possible to keep the faith.

  There were, of course, setbacks in the years that followed. The New Jerusalem promised by Labour failed to materialise even though the National Health Service remained its greatest monument. All over the UK, but especially in Scotland, the bulk of the heavy industries sank to rise no more, and many of the loftier hopes for a better and more caring society remained the stuff of dreams. But out of the wreckage of 1945 came the spoor of something new and different. Although no one could possibly have foreseen it during that first summer of victory, when all seemed to be for the best in the best of all possible worlds, the first steps were being taken to create a world in which it would be possible to assert a sense of Scottish nationhood while remaining inside the curtilage of the British nation-state. Like a late spring it reached fruition before the twentieth century proper came to an end, and in so doing the devolution settlement gave proof to the people of Scotland that the new system of governance could work – and, what is more, work well.

  Notes

  Prologue

  1. http://www.empireexhibition1938.co.uk.

  2. Glasgow Herald, 6 October 1936.

  3. Glasgow Herald, 11 September 1930.

  4. Harvie, No Gods and Precious Few Heroes, p. 40.

  5. Peebles, Warship Building on the Clyde, p. 139.

  6. Glasgow Herald, 6 October 1936.

  7. Crampsey, Empire Exhibition, p. 43.

  8. Lindsay, Portrait of Glasgow, p. 192.

  9. Evening Citizen, 5 May 1938.

  10. Glasgow Herald, 31 October 1938.

  1 Here We Go Again

  1. David Newlands, ‘Structural Change and the Scottish Regions 1914–45’, Devine, Lee and Peden, Transformation of Scotland, pp. 165–8.

  2. Report of the Scottish Liberal Land Inquiry Committee 1927–1928 Glasgow: Scottish Liberal Federation 1928, p. 311.

  3. Muir, Scottish Journey, pp. 18–19.

  4. Ibid., p. 60.

  5. Ibid., pp. 87–94.

  6. Ibid., p. 140.

  7. NA CAB 24/272 Report of the Commissioner for the Special Areas in Scotland, Papers Nos 255(37)–275(37), 12 November 1937.

  8. Muir, Scottish Journey, p. 234.

  9. Bold, MacDiarmid, pp. 101–02.

  10. Hugh MacDiarmid, ‘Causerie’, Scottish Chapbook, vol. I, no. 3, October 1922.

  11. Compton Mackenzie, Pictish Review, November 1927.

  12. Kellas, Modern Scotland, p. 138; Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism, pp. 51–2; Finlay, Modern Scotland, p. 167.

  13. C. H. Douglas, ‘The Delusion of Super-Production’, English Review, December 1918.

  14. Linklater, Magnus Merriman, p. 102.

  15. Muir, Scottish Journey, p. 234.

  16. Die Letzten Wochen vor Kriegenausbruch, 9 August bis 3 September 1939, Akten zur Deutschen Auswartigen Politik, Gottingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1956, vol. 7, p. 171.

  17. Brian Bond ed., Chief of Staff. The Diaries of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pownall, London: Leo Cooper, 1972, p. 221.

  18. NA WO 167/755 War Office: British Expeditionary Force, France: War Diaries, Second World War, War Diary, 5th HLI, 26 August 1939.

  19. Hansard, House of Commons Debate, 31 October 1939 vol. 352 cc 1829–902.

  20. NAS HH 48/66, Police War Duties, Circular No. 4796: Objects Dropped From The Air Etc.

  21. Lindsay, Thank You for Having Me, p. 46.

  22. Recent historians have questioned the use of the term blitzkrieg and argue that von Rundstedt was using enhanced encirclement tactics.

  23. Bill King, MacDougall, Voices from War, p. 190; Constance A.C. Ross, The Herald, 2 September 2009.

  24. Edinburgh Evening News, 3 September 1939.

  25. NAS HH 50/6, Sinking of SS Athenia, Donald Maclean to Scottish Office, 7 September 1939.

  26. Ibid., Department of Health, 24 November 1939.

  27. NA ADM 178/194 Loss of HM Submarine Oxley: Board of Inquiry, 1939.

  28. NA DO 131 Records of the Children’s Overseas Reception Board.

  29. NLS Acc 5540, Box 23, James Kennaway, treatment for ‘Flowers’, pp. 38.

  30. NA CAB 66/9/33 Northern Barrage and other Mining Requirements at Home, Memorandum by the First Lord of the Admiralty, 7 July 1940.

  31. Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life, London: Heinemann, pp. 626–7.

  32. NA ADM 199/158 Loss of HMS Royal Oak: Board of Inquiry, 1940.

  33. NA ADM 115/5790 Main Fleet Base, Scapa Flow: Inception, Development and History 1937–1945.

  34. The first German aircraft to be shot down was a Messerschmitt 109 fighter which was hit while attacking three Fairey Battle strike aircraft over Aachen in Belgium on 20 September. Six days later a Blackburn Sea Skua of 803 Squadron flying from HMS Ark Royal shot down a Dornier Do 18 flying boat 250 miles north-west of Heligoland.

  35. NA AIR 27/1384 Air Ministry and successors: Operations Record Books, Squadrons, 224 Squadron, September–December 1939.

  36. 224 Squadron’s kill has been disputed but it is listed in the archives of the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon.

  37. Scotsman, 17 October 1939.

  38. NA AIR 25/232 Air Ministry and Ministry of Defence: Operations Record Books, Groups, No. 13 (Fighter) Group, Operations Record Book, July 1939–December 1940.

  2 Phoney War

  1. Leo Amery, My Political Life, vol. III, London, 1955, p. 330.

  2. NA CAB 65/2/37, War Cabinet and Cabinet: Minutes (WM and CM Series), The Naval Situation – HMS Nelson.

  3. Jeffrey, This Present Emergency, p. 60.

  4. Dundee Courier, 3 August, 1940.

  5. NA CAB 15/37, Government War Book, Chapter X.

  6. Urquhart, Forgotten Highlander, pp. 14–20.

  7. Bill King, MacDougall, Voices from War, p. 194.

  8. Trevor Royle, Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the First World War, Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2506, pp. 284–5.

  9. Eddie Mathieson, MacDougall, Voices from War, p. 218.

  10. Paterson, Pontius Pilate’s Bodyguard, vol. I, p. 387.

  11. Barnett, Britain and Her Army, p. 410.

  12. Trevor Royle, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders: A Concise History, Edinburgh and London: Mainstream, 2008, p. 154.

  13. Sir Frederick Pile, Ack-Ack, London: Harrap, 1949, p. 115.

  14. Order of Battle, 51st (Highland) Division, May 1940, Salmond, 51st Highland Division, pp. 7–8.

  15. Salmond, 51st Highland Divis
ion, p. 4.

  16. Fergusson, Black Watch and the King’s Enemies, p. 19.

  17. NLS Acc 7380 Wimberley Papers, Box 13 (i).

  18. David, Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division, pp. 6–7.

  19. NA WO 167/710 War Office: British Expeditionary Force, France: War Diaries, Second World War, 1st Black Watch, March 1940.

  20. Delaforce, Monty’s Highlanders, p. 13.

  21. Order of Battle 15th (Scottish) Division, Martin, Fifteenth Scottish Division, p. 3.

  22. Martin, Fifteenth Scottish Division, pp. 355–9.

  23. Order of Battle, 52nd (Lowland) Division, September 1939, Blake, Mountain and Flood, p. 228.

  24. Sebag-Montefiore, Dunkirk, p. 482.

  25. Alanbrooke, War Diaries, p. 80.

  26. NA WO 167/815 War Office: British Expeditionary Force, War Diaries, Second World War, 7th/9th Royal Scots, May 1940.

  27. Lancastria Association Scotland website, http://www.lancastria.org.uk/home.html.

  28. Scotsman, 26 July 1940.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Glasgow Herald, 4 July 1940.

  31. NA ADM 199/2133 Admiralty Casualty Report, Arandora Star.

  32. NAS AD 57/23 Correspondence of Lord Advocate’s Department concerning case of Antonio Mancini, a naturalised British subject, drowned on the Arandora Star after she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat on 2 July 1940.

  33. NA HO45/25755 Detainees in Scotland: appearance before the Scottish Advisory Committee; list of Detainees held in Barlinnie Prison 1940.

  34. Wendy Ugolini, ‘The Internal Enemy “Other”: Recovering the World War Two Narratives of Italian Scottish Women’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, July 2005, p. 149.

  35. Edinburgh Evening News, 11 June 1940; Glasgow Herald, 11 June 1940; Greenock Telegraph, 11 June 1940.

  36. Joseph Pia, MacDougall, Voices from War, p. 308.

  37. NAS HH 55/57, Scottish Home Department, Special Branch Report, December 1943.

  38. Scotsman, 18 February 1940.

  3 Defeat, Retreat and Making Do

  1. NA WO 167/747 War Office: British Expeditionary Force, France: War Diaries, Second World War, 6th Gordon Highlanders, May 1940.

  2. Historical Records of the Cameron Highlanders, vol. V, p. 123.

  3. Muir, First of Foot, p. 55.

  4. Ibid., p. 79.

  5. Kemp, Royal Scots Fusiliers, p. 40.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Sir John Smyth, The Only Enemy, London: Hutchinson, 1959, pp. 146–7.

  8. Gunning, Borderers in Battle, p. 41.

  9. Fergusson, Black Watch and the King’s Enemies, pp. 32–3.

  10. David, Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division, p. 233.

  11. Ibid., pp. 230–1.

  12. NA WO 167/704 War Office: British Expeditionary Force, France: War Diaries, Second World War, 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, June 1940.

  13. David, Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division, pp. 238–41.

  14. Angus Hay of Seaton, The 51st (Highland) Division and St Valéry-en-Caux, France 1940, unpublished lecture Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, 4 November 2008.

  15. Urquhart, Forgotten Highlander, p. 66.

  16. Miles, Life of a Regiment, vol. V, p. 89.

  17. Rose, Who Dies Fighting, p. 9.

  18. Stewart, Thin Red Line, p. 23.

  19. NA WO 106/2574A, Wavell, Report on Malaya Campaign.

  20. Miles, Life of a Regiment, vol. V, p. 111.

  21. Urquhart, Forgotten Highlander, pp. 96–7.

  22. NA CAB 120/570, Cabinet Office: Minister of Defence Secretariat: Records, Churchill to Ismay, 7 January 1940.

  23. McBain, A Regiment at War, p. 93.

  24. Muir, First of Foot, p. 81.

  25. Ibid., p. 91.

  26. David Pinkerton, The Thistle, October 1946.

  27. Paterson, Pontius Pilate’s Bodyguard, vol. II, p. 117.

  28. Muir, First of Foot, pp. 120–21.

  29. Ibid., p. 110.

  30. McBain, A Regiment at War, p. 156.

  31. Richard Hillary, The Last Enemy, London: Macmillan, 1942, p. 100.

  32. NA AIR 27/2074–2078, 602 Squadron Operations Record Books, January 1940–July 1945; NA AIR 27/2079–2081 603 Squadron Operations Record Books, September 1925–July 1945.

  4 Frontline Scotland

  1. NA CAB 21/596 Scottish Administration: Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Bill, 1938, and Act, 1939.

  2. Johnston, Memories, p. 135.

  3. NAS HH 31/5/2 Forward socialist newspaper: copies forwarded to Lord Advocate with expression of concern as to anti-war sentiment contained in some articles.

  4. Tom Johnston, leader in Forward, 24 September 1938.

  5. Hansard, House of Commons Debate 18 April 1939 vol. 346 cc 170–3 170, Civil Defence Regional Commissioners.

  6. Christopher Durston, Cromwell’s Major-Generals: Godly Government during the English Revolution, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001, pp. 5–12.

  7. NA CAB 23/97, Cabinet 4 (39), War Cabinet and Cabinet: Minutes, 1 February 1939.

  8. NA CAB 23/96, Cabinet 53 (38), War Cabinet and Cabinet: Minutes, 7 November 1938.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Glasgow City Archives & Special Collections, Minutes of Glasgow Corporation, Special Committee on Air Raid Precautions, 28 May 1936.

  11. Glasgow City Archives & Special Collections, DCD 2/2, Records of the Civil Defence Department, ‘Provision of Shelter Accommodation’, Glasgow, 1942, p. 15.

  12. Edinburgh Evening News, 5 September 1939.

  13. Memories of Skene Street (now Gilcomstoun) School, Aberdeen 1939–1945, James G. Pittendrigh (late of 19 Chapel Street, Aberdeen), http://www.gilcomstoun.aberdeen.sch.uk/memories.htm.

  14. Osborne, Home Guard, pp. 23–6.

  15. NA WO 32/10016 Home Guard: Dress and Badges (Code66(B)): Scottish Home Guard; headgear.

  16. Osborne, Home Guard, p. 43.

  17. Alanbrooke, War Diaries, p. 89.

  18. Osborne, Home Guard, pp. 66–7.

  19. Linklater, Compton Mackenzie, pp. 289–90.

  20. Ibid., p. 291.

  21. NA WO 199/3251 Letters to and from the War Office concerning Auxiliary Units, January 1941–June 1942.

  22. William Paul and Trevor Royle, ‘Scotland’s Secret Army’, Scotland on Sunday, Spectrum, 24 June 1990, pp. 27–8; Lindsay, Forgotten General, p. 151.

  23. Ibid., William Paul and Trevor Royle, ‘Diary of a Scots Guerrilla’, p. 27.

  24. ‘Auxiliary Units Operational State 1941’, Appendix C, Lampe, Last Ditch, p. 159.

  25. NAS ED3/362 Dispersal of National Treasures in an Emergency.

  26. Ibid., Notes of meeting at St Andrew’s House on Wednesday 27 July 1949 on plans for safeguarding national art treasures in time of war.

  27. NA CAB 66/9/35 Estimated Scale of Air Attack upon the United Kingdom. Memorandum by the Prime Minister, 9 July 1940.

  28. IWM 11929 EDS Collection, Operation Sealion.

  29. Ibid., Informationsheft GB.

  30. Trevor Royle, ‘Operation Sealion: Hitler’s Blueprint for Invasion’, Scotland on Sunday Magazine, 17 June 1990, p. 24.

  31. IWM 11929, EDS Collection, Sonderfahndungsliste GB.

  32. Noël Coward, Future Indefinite, London: Heinemann, 1954, p. 113.

  33. William Paul, interview with Naomi Mitchison, Scotland on Sunday Magazine, 17 June 1990, p. 23.

  34. Douglas Macleod, ‘The Thistle, the Shamrock and the Swastika’, BBC Radio Scotland, 1993.

  35. NA KV 5/3 The Security Service: Organisation (OF series) Files, Anglo-German Fellowship, 1 January 1935–31 December 1940.

  36. NLS Acc. 3721 Muirhead papers, Box 89/27 Correspondence with Douglas Young, Young to Muirhead, 1 August 1940.

  37. NA KV 4/188 Liddell Diaries. Volume 4 of the diary kept by Guy Liddell, the head of the Security Service’s B Division, during the Second World War, 2 February 1941–30 November 1941.

&
nbsp; 38. Susan R. Wilson (ed.), The Correspondence between Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, p. 188.

  39. Hay, Poems and Songs, pp. 464–5.

  5 Scotland’s Conscience, Moral and Political

  1. Scotsman, 23 December 1901.

  2. Hansard House of Commons Debate 14 May 1912 vol. 38 cc 958–9.

  3. The Scotland Bill: Some Constitutional and Representational Aspects, House of Commons Research Paper 98/3, 7 January 1998.

  4. Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism, p. 51.

  5. Young, Chasing an Ancient Greek, p. 58.

  6. Young, Auntran Blads, p. 24.

  7. Compton Mackenzie, On Moral Courage, London: Collins, 1954, pp. 150–51.

  8. William Douglas-Home’s oldest brother was Lord Dunglass, who had served as parliamentary private secretary to Chamberlain, and who later became a Conservative prime minister as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Later in the war, in October 1944, William Douglas-Home was court-martialled and imprisoned for refusing to take part in an attack on Le Havre because he knew that the Allied assault would cause civilian casualties.

  9. Open letter to John MacCormick, by Arthur Donaldson, Scottish News and Comment, August 1942.

  10. John Couzin, Radical Glasgow: A Skeletal Sketch of Glasgow’s Radical Tradition, Glasgow: Volone Press, 2003, p. 70.

  11. NA CAB 24/285, Military Training Bill, 30 April 1939.

  12. NAS HH 50/63 Emergency: Membership of Conscientious Objectors’ Tribunals.

  13. Morgan, ‘Stanza 99 The New Divan’, The New Divan, p. 56.

  14. J. K. Annand, MacDougall, ed., Voices from War, p. 181.

  15. Annand, ‘Atlantic 1941’, Selected Poems, p. 22.

  16. Norman MacCaig, MacDougall, ed., Voices from War, pp. 282–3.

  17. Ibid., p. 286.

  18. Ibid.

  19. NAS HH 50/63 Emergency: Membership of Conscientious Objectors’ Tribunals.