Robert Hunt Cooney (19 November 1907 – 15 August 1984) was a Scottish communist activist.
Biography
editRobert Hunt Cooney[1] was born in Sunderland on 19 November 1907[2] and moved to Aberdeen shortly afterwards following his father's death. He later worked as a clerk in a pawn shop.[3]
He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1928.[4] and regularly engaged in counterprotests against fascist rallies, including by the British Union of Fascists. Following an arrest for one of these demonstrations, for which he was sent to Craiginches Prison,[5] he fought for the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, becoming a political commissar of the British Battalion.[6][2]
He stood as a candidate for Aberdeen North in the 1950 general election,[6] finishing last of four candidates with 1,391 votes, representing 2.7% of the total.
In 1982, Cooney published a poetry collection, When of Heroes We Sing, consisting of songs and poems he had written throughout his life. On the subject, he said "I've always been interested in folk singing. A lot of the old songs are stories of the working people over the ages".[6]
Death and legacy
edit
Bob Cooney died in Aberdeen on 15 August 1984 at the age of 76.[7] He has a gold plaque in Castlegate and, in 1997, the residential area Bob Cooney Court in Berryden was named in his honour.[8][9] A posthumous biography, Proud Journey: a Spanish Civil War memoir, was published by the Marx Memorial Library in October 2015.[10]
References
edit- ^ "Aberdeen North Constituency of the County of the City of Aberdeen". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen. 4 April 1950. p. 5.
- ^ a b "Why we went to fight in Spain". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen. 23 November 1983. p. 10.
- ^ "Aberdeen Activist Dies". Evening Express. Aberdeen. 16 August 1984. p. 1.
- ^ "Bob's back in town". Evening Express. Aberdeen. 26 June 1973. p. 7.
- ^ James Hunter (10 September 1976). "The Freedom Fighter". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen. p. 10.
- ^ a b c Andrew Knight (25 November 1982). "A proud folk memory". Evening Express. Aberdeen. p. 10.
- ^ "Deaths". Evening Express. Aberdeen. 17 August 1984. p. 8.
- ^ "War hero Bob saved kids from nuns' 'boot camp'". Evening Express. Aberdeen. 12 June 1997. p. 3.
- ^ Neil Drysdale (17 July 2021). "No pasaran! Bob Cooney was among the Scots who fought fascists in Spain and in Second World War". The Press and Journal. Aberdeen. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
- ^ "Bob Cooney memoir now in print". International Brigade Memorial Trust. 15 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2024.