The Rolls-Royce Communist
Secret files reveal Scots factory in Whitehall plea to sack worker
THE Rolls-Royce factory near Glasgow appealed for Government help to get rid of an “ardent Communist” in the early 1940s, previously secret documents show.
The engineering firm – which made Merlin engines for Hurricanes, Spitfires and Lancaster bombers during the Second World War – sent a request to Whitehall for aid with the “withdrawal” of the worker.
The Communist in question was Samuel “Sam’’ Aaronovitch, whose son, David is a writer and Times newspaper columnist and wrote a recent book entitled Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists.
In it he detailed how, unlike his childhood friends, he was not allowed to read the Beano because its publisher, DC Thomson, was hostile to trade unions. Walt Disney films were banned for similar reasons.
The Aaronovitch family were the subject of police interest from 1939 onwards, newly released papers from the National Archives show.
They reveal the police monitored Sam as he moved from London to Northampton in 1940.
He used his home there as a base from which to travel the country to give talks on left wing themes, often apparently under a different name.
But on August 11, 1941 he received a 10 shilling fine for writing “Unite against Fascism!” on a road sign.
Afterwards, he relocated to Glasgow, where he took up a job at the Rolls-Royce factory in Hillington.
Initially, however, police were confused about where in Scotland he had gone. In a report from August 1941, Coventry police noted that he had expressed an interest in going to Edinburgh.
A separate report recorded it was believed he had moved to Scotland “for his health”.
Inquiries to find out exactly where he had gone were “ongoing”. Another note, also headed “Secret”, from the Chief Constable’s office in Warwick in September details relates that he had moved to Glasgow.
Coventry Police then brought his name to the attention of the Chief Constable of Glasgow, the files show. In October 1941 the police wrote to the Rolls-Royce factory and told them Mr Aaronovitch, who had by then applied for a job with the firm, was an “ardent Communist” and asked to be kept informed if he was given a job.
The next month the works manager at Rolls-Royce wrote to Whitehall to confirm he had taken up a position.
In it he added they had “hoped a legitimate reason for discharge might have shown itself” but so far that had not been the case and asked for help with his “withdrawal”, suggesting it could be aided by the “ministry of Labour authority”.
The Air Ministry had funded the factory’s construction in the 1930s, amid fears over events in continental Europe. It was only fully taken over by Rolls-Royce themselves after the war.
But the bid to get rid of him failed. In Scotland he was appointed the Communist Party’s district literature organiser and also made propaganda organiser.
His Glasgow trail ends in 1945 when police noted he had left to take up a position in London.