A photograph showing the Socialist activist John Maclean's coffin being carried from his home in Pollokshaws at the start of the funeral march, 30 November 1923.
Maclean was born in Pollokshaws and became a teacher. During the early 1900s he became one of Glasgow's most prominent Marxist educators and orators and by 1914 he was Glasgow's leading advocate of social revolution. In 1915 he was sacked from his teaching job. A pacifist, he was imprisoned 1916-1918 for sedition and incitement to strike. His health suffered from hunger strikes and harsh prison conditions and was further undermined by long hours political campaigning after the First World War on behalf of the Scottish Workers' Party and he died at the age of forty-four. More than 10,000 people followed the funeral procession to Eastwood Cemetery.
Reference: TEMP.2039.1065
Reporduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
Keywords:
coffins, First World War, funeral processions, funerals, hearses, hunger strikes, Marxism, Marxists, orators, pacifists, police officers, policemen, political activists, politicians, prisoners, Red Clydeside, Scottish Workers' Party, socialism, socialists, teachers