Conversation with Daniel Poole on
"Fascism meant hunger and war": New research into Black-British anti-fascist, Charlie Hutchison.
Friday 6 February 2026, 1pm - 2pm
Seminar Room 63, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
All Welcome
Charlie Hutchison (1918-1993) is the only known Black Briton to have fought in the Spanish Civil War. Having lied about his age to fight in Spain, Charlie survived a massacre that wiped out two-thirds of his company. Being one of the earliest British volunteers, and among the youngest and longest serving foreign volunteers, Charlie survived frostbite, shrapnel wounds, and was the victim of a smear campaign by the Daily Mail newspaper. During WW2 he served the British Army between 1940-1946 in Britain, India, the Middle East, and mainland Europe, and was once imprisoned for stealing clothes and giving them to refugees. Near the end of the war, Charlie served in a military unit that provided aid to the survivors of Nazi concentration camps. His existence was rediscovered in 2018 through the efforts of a curious historian and a class of London college students. Recently the Museum of Oxford has funded the research for a biography of Charlie Hutchison, the findings of which will be publicly shared in this lecture.
Biography:
Dan Poole is a history student who has recently authored a biography of Charlie Hutchison. His first book, Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency (2023). His primary interests centre on the British Empire and anti-colonial movements in the 20th century.
