User:Philbarker/sandbox/Stafford Cottman

Stafford Leslie Charles "Staff" Cottman (1918-1999) was a socialist trade unionist who, as a member of the Independent Labour Party, fought with the POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War in 1936. In Spain he met and became friends with George Orwell, with whom he escaped the persecution of POUM members that followed the clashes of the Barcelona "May Days" between Republican factions. He was the inspiration for the David Carr character in Ken Loach's film Land and Freedom.

Early Life and Spain
Cottman was born in Shirley, Southampton (UK) on 6 March 1918, the son of a sea-captain and a parlour maid. He grew up in London and then Bristol, attending Socialist Sunday School and joining the Young Communist League (YCL). At the age of 17 he left the YCL and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which at that time was a Marxist party not aligned with Comintern. He was the youngest volunteer to join the ILP contingent that went to fight in Spain in 1936.

Arriving in Barcelona, along with the other ILP volunteers Cottman fought alongside the POUM militia and,