Red Clydeside

Timeline of events

The sedition trials : John Maclean (of the B.S.P.) gets 3 years

Muir and Gallacher (Clyde Workers' Committee) get 1 year

8 Apr 1916

In October 1915, John Maclean was arrested for the first time under the Defence of the Realm Act and charged with uttering statements calculated to prejudice recruiting. He was found guilty and fined £5, but declined to pay and instead was sentenced to five days' imprisonment. His conviction was immediately followed by his dismissal from his post of teacher by the Govan Board of Education.

On his release from prison, Maclean continued with his anti-war agitation and in February 1916 was again arrested under DORA and charged with six separate offences of sedition in relation to anti-conscription speeches made at open-air meetings throughout the Clydeside region during January 1916. On April 11, he was found guilty on four of the charges brought against him and sentenced to three years' penal servitude.

However, massive agitation on Maclean's behalf forced his release from prison on 30 June 1917, having served 14 months and 22 days of his three-year sentence. On his release he immediately resumes his anti-war campaigning.

Source: Gallacher Memorial Library, Glasgow Caledonian University Special Collections and Archives