George Drever was a Scottish communist and volunteer with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.
15 Facts About George Drever
1.
2.
George Drever lived at 41, Ferry Road, Leith was schooled at Leith Academy and passed Scottish Highers in English, Maths, Science and became Dux in 1928.
3.
George Drever spent some time teaching in the National Council of Labour Colleges.
4.
George Drever had originally volunteered for Abyssinia when invaded by Mussolini but his service was refused.
5.
George Drever was given a rail ticket and did not tell his parents or friends.
6.
George Drever's purpose was not just to fight fascism in Spain but to be trained in weapons ready for 'revolution' back at home.
7.
George Drever was one of those who were pragmatically aware that the Republican cause was unlikely to succeed, even before he left.
8.
George Drever was considered it strange that fellow communist thought he would not need to carry his own pack as a volunteer soldier, as he was from the educated classes.
9.
George Drever wrote in code to inform their Communist Party comrades in Edinburgh of his loss.
10.
At his next prisoner camp in Palencia, George Drever met other Scots like Donald McGregor, who was dead by the time George Drever was interviewed in 1986.
11.
George Drever was pleased that his mother did not repay the death insurance that had been claimed, although he had to pay his return fare from Spain to the British Government.
12.
George Drever had trouble finding employment in any of the Edinburgh chemical firms and so had to move to Sheffield.
13.
George Drever kept in touch with fellow volunteers in the International Brigade Association, attending gatherings in Spain and Germany.
14.
George Drever was interviewed in the 1980s in a collection of personal stories from the Scottish International Brigade and his photograph hung in the National Galleries of Scotland.
15.
George Drever was in a group pictured for Glasgow Herald 5 December 1981 and in the National Galleries newsletter in 2009 with a photograph from 1986, when a memorial to volunteers was unveiled in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.