Tartan Angels: The Scottish Ambulance Unit in Madrid During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Tartan Angels sheds light on the work of the Scottish Ambulance Unit (SAU) and the crucial part it played in British medical and humanitarian aid to Spain. In the eighty-five years since the outbreak of the civil war an immense historiography has developed. A steady widening of focus has seen the inclusion of studies that address the intense and prolonged suffering of a civilian population affected by political repression, relentless military bombardment, deprivation, and disease. Likewise, focus has shifted to those who provided assistance to victims during and after the conflict. To date, academic emphasis has been on the left-wing politics behind such endeavours, with too little attention given to the humanitarian responses themselves. Tartan Angels embraces this argument in its focus on the Scottish Ambulance Unit, an enterprise that was arguably apolitical in nature and comprised of individuals inspired, above all, by compassionate and unselfish motives. However, the reputation of the Unit suffered irreparable damage as a result of a series of incidents and events that still remain not fully explained or understood. Furthermore, there were those who used controversy and rumour to deliberately undermine the fundraising efforts of the Units patron and supporters. There is much still to be learned about the creation and the functioning of the SAU an outstanding but largely overlooked humanitarian gesture on behalf of the people of Scotland to those suffering the effects of a brutal civil war in Spain.

Linda Palfreeman is Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Cardenal Herrera, Elche, Spain. Her research on local aspects of the Spanish Civil War and of the International Brigades’ Medical Service resulted in Salud! British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Service during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 (2012), followed by Aristocrats, Adventurers and Ambulances: British Medical Units in the Spanish Civil War (2013), and Spain Bleeds: The Development of Battlefield Blood Transfusion During the Civil War (2015), the final book in this informal trilogy. Her upcoming book, Tartan Angels: The Scottish Ambulance Unit in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) (2023) continues to provide long unavailable information on health care and medical assistance during wartime.