Wilfred F Macartney 16th June 1898 - 2nd Nov 1970

The first commander of the British Battalion and one of the few, if not the only person, to hold such a position who wasn't a member of the Communist Party. Up until his time with the British Battalion he had lived a very eventful life, having served in the British Army during WWI, been employed by British Intelligence and served 10 years in jail for being a Russian spy! He went to Spain shortly after his release form prison.

Wilfred also wrote a book about his time in prison called 'Walls Have Mouths' The book has a prologue, epilogue and comments after most chapters by Compton Mackenzie, better known as the author of Whiskey Galore, and also Wilfreds CO during his time with British Intelligence in the Aegean.

Macartney, Springhall, Kerrigan, Wintringham, Ryan

A rare photo of Wilfred Macartney with other IB Commanders in Spain. This picture appears in Tom Wintringhams book 'English Captain' and is also on the IBMT website.

I got my copy of Walls Have Mouths from Bolland Books It has to be said though, it is very hard reading!

Other information on Wilfred can be found in the National Archives He is also mentioned in the Bill Alexander book 'British Volunteers for Liberty'

Thanks also to Christina Smith.

It should be noted that, according to his book at least, the correct spelling of the surname is Macartney although the documents in the National Archive come up using McCartney & Macartney, the IBMT also use McCartney.