HIS name remains a byword for radical socialism and along with his fellow Red Clydesiders he left a lasting impression on the social history of Glasgow and Scotland.

At a time when the city was a hotbed of socialist revolution, John Maclean became a hero and a martyr after being sacked from his job as a teacher and being force-fed in prison.

And when he died 90 years ago today, more than 20,000 people followed his coffin through the city streets in one of the biggest funerals Glasgow has ever seen.

As he rose to prominence with the likes of Willie Gallacher, James Maxton, Emmanuel Shinwell, Mary Barbour and John Wheatley, many regarded Maclean as the most charismatic, a man of supreme intellect and passion.

He was vehemently opposed to the First World War and delivered speeches saying the working classes of different countries should not have to kill each other on the battlefields.

Maclean, who is remembered by a rundown monument near where he was born in Pollokshaws, held anti-war meetings attended by thousands and he was eventually arrested and charged as an agitator.

In 1918 he was jailed for sedition and sent to Peterhead Prison, where he went on hunger strike. He was force-fed using an India rubber tube and his ill-treatment is thought to have contributed to his early death in 1923.

Maclean was born in 1879 in Pollokshaws, at 59 King Street. His parents had both left the ­Highlands during the Clearances and his father died when John was nine.

At Pollok Academy there was little hint of the revolutionary to come. Maclean was a serious, often humourless, boy who trained to become a teacher.

His brand of socialism grew out of his hatred of the landlord system that he felt had condemned his family to a life of poverty, and his attendance at meetings of the Progressive Union in Pollokshaws. There he was exposed to ­socialists, Marxists, anarchists and others yearning for change, and in a short time Maclean had become the most electrifying speaker.

He taught industrial history and economics at a school in ­Glasgow's south side school until 1915, when he was sacked after being charged with agitating against the First World War.

Maclean was a ferocious ­anti-war campaigner and he used his educational work to pass his message to thousands of workers.

He helped organise strikes and held anti-war campaign ­meetings at Glasgow Green. In 1917 he was appointed Consul for Soviet Affairs in Great Britain after the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia.

But it was his trial for sedition in 1918 that brought him to national attention.

He brilliantly and memorably conducted his own defence and, when sentenced to five years penal servitude, turned to supporters in the court and shouted; "Keep it going, boys, keep it going."

Glasgow folk singer Arthur Johnstone, a lifelong socialist, has been singing about Maclean for decades.

He said: "I heard about John Maclean when I was involved as a young shop steward, a lot of the older people talked about him.

"He was one of the first people to start teaching about an alternative economics, like ­Marxist theories.

"I first heard the John Maclean March sung by a band called The Clutha and I started to sing it using a different rhythm. I have been doing it ever since.

"His influence is second to none. I think it is great it is the 90th anniversary of his death and he is still being recognised as one of the greats."

Johnstone added: "He was an icon, like James Connolly in Ireland, and both men died young. It is well documented how John Maclean was treated. It is one of those sad and tremendous stories."