Charlie Hutchison: Oxfordshire’s Black-British anti-fascist legend

The only known Black British man to have fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War

Photograph of a mural dedicated to Charlie Hutchison, painted on the wall of Coffee#1 which opened in 2021, Witney, Oxfordshire. Image taken in April 2022.

“I am half Black, I grew up in the National Children’s Home and Orphanage. Fascism meant hunger and war”.

Born in Eynsham just west of Oxford, few people have lived such an adventurous life as Charlie Hutchison (1918-1993), the only known Black British person to have fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. In Spain Charlie was one of the approximately 2,500 ordinary people from Britain & Ireland who volunteered to help the Spanish government resist a fascist takeover commanded by General Franco with support from Hitler and Mussolini.
Charlie was among the first wave of anti-fascist volunteers from the British Isles to arrive in Spain. He was also among the youngest volunteers and possibly one of the longest-serving volunteers from Britain. Between 1940-1946 he served in the British Army. He was stationed in the middle east before taking part in the liberation of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the invasion of Nazi Germany. In 1940 he served in a unit that helped save the lives of concentration camp survivors.

Note: This article contains never-before published photographs of Charlie Hutchison, provided by Charlie Hutchison’s daughter Susan Lilian Small and published on the Museum of Oxford website with her permission.

Photograph of Charlie Hutchison (right) taken during WWII. Image provided by Susan Lilian Small.

Charlie’s early life

Charlie Hutchison was born on the 10 May 1918, in a tiny historic village called Eynsham. His mother was a white British woman who frequently moved across England, married several men, and changed her name many times. Charlie Hutchison’s father, Charles Francis Hutchison, was a Black engineer and businessman from the Gold Coast (Ghana) who went on to author the famous book The Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities. Charlie Hutchison’s African relatives were wealthy and powerful elites from the Gold Coast and were the descendants of Scottish and Africans who had played many prominent roles in the history of the Gold Coast.

Charlie lived his entire life never knowing who his African ancestors were. Despite the power and wealth of his relatives in Africa, Charlie Hutchison himself was raised in extreme poverty and hardship. By age 3 he was submitted into foster care. Later in Charlie’s childhood, his father returned to Africa, leaving Charlie and his family in dire poverty. With Charlie’s mother verging on physical, mental, and financial collapse, Charlie and one of his sisters were sent to live in an orphanage.

In 1933 Charlie left the orphanage and moved to Fulham, London. He became an assistant to a lorry driver and also joined the Territorial Army. It is during this time as a teenager in London that Charlie shows a strong interest in politics and trade unions. He also joined the Transport & General Workers’ Union (now called Unite), and by 1935 he had joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and its youth wing the Young Communist League (YCL). This was far from a unique choice of political party, as many of Britain’s leading 20th century Black civil rights activists would also join the communist movement, most of whom cited a desire to fight against racism, colonialism, and poverty as their motivations to become Marxists. Some notable figures include Claudia Jones, Dorothy Kuya, Henry Gunter, Billy Strachan, Len Johnson, and Peter Blackman, to name only a few examples. In 1936 Charlie participated in the Battle of Cable Street, a famous riot fought between the British Union of Fascists and their opponents which saw the fascists abandon their march and retreat. In the words of historian Richard Baxell, Charlie “felt with the Jewish volunteers that fascism was a very real threat to his existence, beyond any theoretical abstraction.”

A photograph taken in 1937 of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in Spain, whose leader was the first African-American in history to command white troops in battle. Unknown photographer.

Arrival in Spain

In 1936 Spain’s nationalist led military rebelled against the Spanish Republican government. The nationalists embraced fascism and received military support from both Italy and Nazi Germany, while the Republican government was supported by the Soviet Union and Mexico. By the end of the war, approximately 2,500 volunteers from the British Isles had fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of anti-fascist forces.

Charlie Hutchison is notable among those volunteers as the only known Black British person to have fought in the war. It appears that during his time in Spain, he was mistaken for an African-American, as some historic documents detailing his time in Spain appear in a folder for American volunteers. Charlie was not the only man with strong links to Oxfordshire who fought against fascism in Spain, as historians have identified at least 32 others, the most famous of which would be George Orwell.

Charlie left for Spain in late 1936 and was noted by the Special Branch (police spies) to have left for Spain to become a machine gunner. He joined the International Brigades, a military force of foreign volunteers who fought to protect the Spanish Republic from Franco’s fascist takeover. Charlie joined a small company of 145 English-speaking volunteers, who were sent to retake a town called Lopera from fascist forces. This event, known as the Battle of Lopera, was a disaster for the anti-fascist forces who were defeated by the nationalists’ superior airpower and artillery.

By the end of the battle, only 67 of the 145 members of Charlie’s company survived the Battle of Lopera.

Later service in Spain

After the Battle of Lopera, Charlie Hutchison appears to have been taken out of frontline combat and spent the remainder of the war driving and servicing vehicles. He also began serving as an ambulance driver, helping save the lives of injured anti-fascists across Spain. Documents related to his service in Spain note that Charlie was present at the Battle of Jarama, the military fronts of Ebro, Aragon, and Teruel, and that he had participated in at least twelve battles during the war. He served with distinction, receiving universal praise from his commanders and fellow anti-fascist volunteers who described him as dedicated and hardworking.

Despite his exemplary service, Charlie faced many difficulties in Spain. Firstly, he was repeatedly wounded, suffering from frostbite and shrapnel wounds. Secondly, he became a target of a smear campaign by the British Daily Mail newspaper, which wrote an article on Charlie and a fellow volunteer titled “More British Boys Lured to Spain”. The article even quoted Charlie Hutchison’s mother, who called for him to return home. Thirdly, Charlie began making frequent requests for military leave to temporarily return to Britain, none of which were granted despite assurances from his superiors that he had earned it.

In December 1938 when the other British volunteers had returned home, Charlie was still in Spain, having seemingly been forgotten and left behind. He finally returned to Britain in early 1939 with help from the Red Cross. After returning to the UK, he took part in a charity tour to raise medical aid for the Spanish Republic, only for the fascists to win the war a few months later.

Second World War (1939-1945)

Charlie Hutchison and his wife posing with one of their children. Image provided by Susan Lilian Small.

Charlie Hutchison served the British military between 1940-1946 and joined the British Army’s Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). There is evidence to suggest that he was present during the Dunkirk Evacuations, but there is no conclusive proof that he participated. In mid-1940 he was sent to Somerset to serve the headquarters of the British military’s 8^th Corps which was responsible for the defence of South-West England. During his time in Somerset, Charlie came into contact with refugees whose houses had been destroyed during the Blitz. He began stealing clothes from the British military and giving them to the refugees, who would then sell the clothes to local people. Charlie was caught and sentenced to 3 months of hard labour in HMS Exeter. It appears that some people had sympathy for his Robin Hood-like actions, as Charlie was released from prison early and allowed to return to his old post.

Between 1943 and 1944, Charlie and his unit travelled through Scotland, briefly docked in Sierra Leone and South Africa, and served in India, Iraq, Iran, and possibly Egypt, before returning to Britain. In June 1944, Charlie and his unit were sent to France and landed in Normandy only a few days after D-Day, where they then participated in the liberation of France. In September they crossed the border into Belgium where Charlie witnessed the liberation of Brussels.

In 1945 Charlie and his unit participated in the liberation of the Netherlands, before then crossing into Nazi Germany in April shortly before Hitler killed himself. They established a base camp in Fallingbostel, a German settlement notable for being the site of large prisoner-of-war camps (Stalags) containing Allied soldiers. Charlie and his unit began delivering food and medical supplies to the newly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, saving the lives of the camp’s surviving prisoners who were now struggling to survive against disease and hunger.  Later in his life, Charlie recalled that he had been “asked to play in a dance band a few days after Belsen was liberated”, a moment which he recalled as one of the key memories of his life.

Charlie’s later life

By the time Charlie Hutchison left the British military in 1946, he had spent almost 10 years continuously fighting fascist movements across the world. When he returned to the UK he moved back to London and married a fellow communist called Patricia Holloway in 1947. The couple lived in London where they had three children. Charlie worked various jobs to support them using his wartime engineering and driving skills. By 1961 they had saved enough money to buy their own home in High Wycombe, where they used their newfound financial stability to care for foster children. A few years later they moved to Dorset where Charlie and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. In support of the anti-apartheid movement, Patricia refused to allow South African products to enter the family home. After retiring in the mid-1980s, Charlie began dedicating more time to his political activism. He was a founding member of a successful campaign to raise a memorial to the International Brigade in London’s Jubilee Gardens, which today is famous as the site of the London Eye. He died in Bournemouth Hospital in March 1993, leaving behind a family which continues to be deeply proud of his accomplishments. So many people had attended Charlie’s funeral that the attendees all had to stand so that they could fit into the chapel.

Charlie Hutchison was a humble and private man. Many people who knew him personally were unaware that he had fought in Spain, and even his own family members did not know the details of his military record. Those who knew him recall that whenever the topic of his wartime record was brought up in conversation, he would respond with a variation of the phrase “sorry I’ve got my tin hat on” and stop talking. This side of Charlie’s personality had the unintended effect of him being forgotten by history following his death.

Legacy – War Memorial

Photograph of Charlie Hutchison with his daughter Susan Lilian Small at her wedding. Image provided by Susan Lilian Small.

In 2014 a campaign began to raise a memorial in Oxford to commemorate people with links to Oxfordshire who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. The memorial was finally unveiled in 2017 despite complications with planning permission and difficulties securing funding. The location on the outskirts of the city was due to the decision by city councillors to reject all planned locations for an anti-fascist memorial in the city centre.
Some notable examples include people with links to Oxfordshire who fought in the Spanish Civil War include:

• Thora Silverthorne (1910-1999): Trained as a nurse in Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary. She headed one of the first foreign hospitals established in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
• Ralph Winston Fox (1900-1936): A linguist and graduate of Oxford University’s Magdalen College graduate who authored biographies of Vladimir Lenin and Genghis Khan. He served as the political commissar in Charlie Hutchison’s unit.
• Lewis Clive (1910-1938): An Olympic gold medallist in rowing who studied at Oxford University’s Christ Church.
• Wogan Philipps (1902-1993): the first communist to sit in the UK House of Lords.
• George Orwell (1903-1950): Author and journalist.
• Giles Romilly (1916-1967): Winston Churchill’s nephew.

To raise funds for the memorial, a book was written titled No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (2015). This special work attempted to uncover the life stories of all known volunteers with links to Oxfordshire who travelled to Spain to fight fascism, and identified 31 such volunteers. However, Charlie Hutchison’s name was completely absent from the book. The authors of No Other Way, and the larger historical community, appear to have been entirely unaware that Charlie ever existed. It seemed as though Charlie was destined to be forgotten.

Charlie Hutchison (centre) in later life. Image provided by Susan Lilian Small.

Re-discovery (2018-present)

Evidence of Charlie Hutchison’s activities in Spain was rediscovered by historian Richard Baxell when he came across Charlie’s name in archives located in London and Moscow. In 2018 Baxell published his findings, providing a description of the only known Black-British man to have fought in the Spanish Civil War. The following year, a history project led by London school students of Newham Sixth Form College, managed to find Charlie Hutchison’s surviving relatives, providing an even more complete picture of Charlie’s life story. This then led to Oxford University’s Wadham College, announcing the Charlie Hutchison Project, which was an outreach program aimed at London schoolchildren inviting them to apply to Oxford.

In 2022, a memorial campaign was launched in the Museum of Oxford to preserve Charlie Hutchison’s memory and spread awareness of his existence and achievements. The campaign seeks to research and preserve historical evidence of Charlie, with the ultimate goal of one day raising a statue commemorating Charlie in Oxford. If successful, this statue will be Oxford’s first statue commemorating a Black individual.

To learn more about the ongoing Charlie Hutchison memorial and statue campaign, visit charliememorial.com for more information.

Written and researched by MOX volunteer Dan Poole, the author of an upcoming biography of Charlie Hutchison, whose research was funded by MOX’s Peter McQuitty Bursary. This article was rewritten in 2025 to accommodate new discoveries and to correct mistakes uncovered during his research.

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Want to read more about the communist movement in Oxford? Find out about strike leader Bill Firestone a.k.a. Abe Lazarus.

Bibliography for this piece:

Barnett, Marcus. “Britain’s Black International Brigadier.” Tribune Magazine, October 31, 2020. https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/10/britains-black-international-brigadier (accessed April 13, 2022).

Baxell, Richard. “Charlie Hutchison.” NO PASARÁN 52 (2019): 8. http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/sites/default/files/NoPasaran3-2019Web.pdf (accessed April 13, 2022).

Baxell, Richard. “The British Battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939.” PhD diss. London School of Economics and Political Science, 21 December 2001. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1661/ (accessed April 13, 2022).

Farman, Chris. Valery Rose, Liz Woolley. No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. UK: Oxford International Brigades Memorial Committee, 2015.

James, Luke. “Nimby’s block nod to heroes of Spain Civil War in Oxford.” November 6, 2015. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-69a5-nimbys-block-nod-to-heroes-of-spain-civil-war-in-oxford-1 (accessed April 13, 2022).

Meddick, Simon. Liz Payne, Phil Katz. Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited, 2020.