BBC Scotland's social affairs correspondent, Reevel Alderson, knew the 87-year-old well.

Stevie Fullarton was among hundreds who went to fight in Spain

In the last few years, Stevie Fullarton was almost blind and deaf, but when I last met him in April, 2007, he was continuing to declare he had been right to volunteer to fight in a civil war in a country few Britons had visited.

Ten years earlier, I had been in the Spanish Cortes (the parliament) when the government in Madrid had granted all those who had fought in the International Brigades honorary Spanish citizenship.

Beaming with pride Stevie said: "This is one of the proudest moments of my life. I have been honoured by the people I came to help."

On the black Spanish peasant's beret he always wore at such occasions were badges commemorating his returns to Spain for the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversary of the civil war.

Fascist forces

By 1938, when Stevie walked across the Pyrenees in rope-soled sandals, the British and French governments had banned their citizens from taking part in the conflict.

It was a policy of non-intervention which failed to prevent Hitler and Mussolini from sending thousands of men and equipment to aid Franco's fascist forces.

Stevie was just 18, and had lied about his age.

Volunteers from many countries defended the government

In the five closes near his tenement home in the Shettleston district of Glasgow, four men had already gone.

Many had been persuaded by the oratory of a local Communist, James Maley, who had recently returned from Spain where he had been captured during the Battle of Jarama.

Stevie said: "It wasn't just me - it was a feeling that existed in the area."

Training in Spain was rudimentary and interrupted when he was sent to the Battle of the Ebro, the last desperate counter-offensive by the Republican forces as they tried to halt Franco's advance.

End of an era

Fierce fighting on Hill 481 at Gandesa saw him shot in the leg after his machine-gun ran out of ammunition.

He was evacuated by boat across the river, and was operated on without anaesthetic.

After recuperating, he returned to Britain and saw service with the RAF in World War II.

The death in Edinburgh's Western General Hospital of Stevie marks the end of an era - when men would volunteer to fight for freedom, rather than go because they were conscripted.