Weddell Bob

 Bob Weddell

Bob Weddell, almost certainly born in 1913, was a leading member of Edinburgh Young Communist League (YCL) from when he joined in 1936. He was secretary of the Youth Food Ship Committee that collected for the relief of Republican Spain.

At the beginning of the Second World War, he organised a petition of two thousand names calling for bomb proof shelters in a working class part of Edinburgh.

Bob Weddel died in March 1940; according to the YCL paper, `Challenge’: "Bob Weddel’s  death was hastened because of the conditions under which he had to work. It is with the object of abolishing those conditions for ever that Challenge and the YCL work." (Challenge claimed his death date as 9^th March; official records say 7^th March.)

Weddell’s cause of death is given as “splenic anaemia”, an imprecise diagnosis for today, although speculation in genealogy circles has focused on leukaemia. His occupation as a van driver may perhaps have been seen by his comrades as deleterious to his health, hastening his death.

Sources: Challenge 6^th March 1941; http://www.laurahird.com/sarahsancestors.html