Call to change the name of First Minister's residence after claim of aristocrat's link to fascist funding

For four decades the Catholic Church was said to be closely allied with General Franco's dictatorship.

A press conference outside Bute House

Beevor's The Battle For Spain book claims that the "devoutly Catholic" Marquess of Bute sold "vast freeholds which he owned in the city of Cardiff and denoted the proceeds to the nationalist movement."

Retired physician Graham Sharp in a letter directed at the National Trust for Scotland says that the memory of the many Scots who fought and died in the fight against fascism in Spain is "besmirched" by the name given to the First Minister's Robert Adam-designed neoclassical residence in the historic New Town of Edinburgh.

"In this year, the 80th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, the National Trust for Scotland, who own Bute House, should change its name."

In 1966, the Bute House was given to the National Trust for Scotland "in lieu of duty" on the estate of the 5th Marquess who had died in 1956.

The Spanish Civil War started as a coup by the Spanish military against the democratically elected government on 18 July, 1936 and led to three years of war and then four decades of fascist dictatorship under Gen Francisco Franco.

The three-year struggle is often regarded as a rehearsal for World War II.

Nazi Germany helped the Spanish generals attack their government, while Soviet Russia came to the aid of Spain's democratically elected administration.

Thousands of foreign volunteers fought on both sides. About 250,000 people died during the conflict.

Scottish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War comprised 23% of the estimated 2,400 men and women who travelled from Great Britain to serve in the International Brigades, military units made up of volunteers from different countries to fight against the Spanish Falangist forces led by General Franco.

More than 500 of the Brits who stood against Franco died, 65 of them coming from Glasgow.

Professor Willy Maley, professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Glasgow who co-wrote a play about the role Glasgow men in the Spanish Civil War was not keen on any name change and suggested a plaque in Bute House to recognise those who lost their lives.

His semi-autobiographical play was based on the experiences of Mr Maley’s father James, who was taken prisoner by Franco’s forces at the Battle of Jarama.

He said: "John Crichton Stuart, the fourth marquess of Bute was a great architectural patron and a noted conservationist – the surviving splendour of Charlotte Square is I believe in large part down to him.

"As a devout Roman Catholic he supported Franco. My own father [James] was a lapsed Catholic – still falling as I write – and a devout Communist, who fought Franco.

"I’m not sure that changing the names of buildings – or of the islands they’re named after – will help here. I think we need to conserve history while having some public acknowledgement and discussion of the fact that despite the best efforts of socialists like John Wheatley in the 1920s to characterise Catholicism as 'the church of the proletariat' the hierarchy in Scotland and in Ireland consistently came out against the radical left and in the 1930s supported fascism."

James Maley was presented with a medal as Scotland's oldest survivor of the Spanish Civil War in 2007.

Prof Maley added: "I'm generally against changing names and pulling down old buildings or statues. Better to make people aware of the history behind our monuments and mansions.

International Brigades House would certainly have a nice ring to it, especially in the current climate, but I would settle for a plaque on the wall of the drawing-room marking the courage and commitment of the ordinary and extraordinarily men and women who fought Franco and fascism."

Between 1970 and 1999 Bute House served as the official residence of the Secretary of State for Scotland and since 1999 it has been the official residence of the First Minister.

A National Trust for Scotland spokesman said: “Bute House has a long a varied history. Built to Robert Adam’s original design, at one time it went by the name of Oman’s Hotel and has passed through a succession of owners.

“Property in Charlotte Square was first acquired by the Bute family in the early 1900s. Numbers 5, 6 and 7 were donated to nation in lieu of death duties in the 1950s and came to the Trust in 1966, with a subsequent agreement that No. 6 was to be used as an official residence for the Secretary of State for Scotland.

“Bute House is now the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland and is managed by Historic Environment Scotland although still owned by NTS.

“We have not received any letter requesting a name-change, but the name is well-established and does reflect the history of the property.”