Jimmy Rutherford

James Rutherford (20 November 1917 – 24 May 1938) was a Scottish communist and volunteer with the International Brigades, who was captured and expelled from Spain in 1937, but returned to fight against fascism, and was executed in the Spanish Civil War.

Background Rutherford was born on 20 November 1917 and brought up in the close-knit fishing village of Newhaven on Forth, at 9 Ann Street (near Leith, Edinburgh) who had served as a sergeant in World War One, and led the machine gun company. They were captured at Jarama, two months later (2 February 1937) and Rutherford and Fry were initially sentenced to death, but later deported as part of a prisoner exchange from Spain, on 25 May 1937, on promising not to return. in 1937-38, having told his father If all the young men had seen what I saw out there, they would be doing as I am doing. but was pragmatically aware that the uprising was unlikely to succeed, even beforehand. Rutherford, was said to be more of an idealist. and had promised not to return, he used a false name (James Smalls)

Jimmy Rutherford's loss was mourned by his fisher community in Newhaven, and the communist and socialist movement. In the Daily Worker, he was described as One of Scotland's National Heroes, who gave his life for an ideal, and a memorial to the International Brigades Lothians and Fife volunteers was placed in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, but to date (2021) there is no specific physical memorial to Jimmy Rutherford. The wording on the International Brigades plaque saysNot to a fanfare of trumpets,

Nor even the skirl o' the pipes,

Not for the offer of a shilling,

Nor to see their name up in lights.

Their call was a cry of anguish,

From the hearts of the people of Spain,

Some paid with their lives it is true

A heavy cotton banner with Rutherford's portrait and name Jimmy Rutherford Leith, the sickle red flag and tricoloured flag with the words 'Died for Our Liberty" written above him, is in the Historical Environment Scotland's SCRAN collection.

External resources

Historic Environment Scotland, Jimmy Rutherford Banner, Scran ID: 000-000-033-443-C: SCRAN