Peter Kerrigan

Who was Peter Kerrigan?

Peter Kerrigan was a communist activist in Britain.

Born in the Hutchesontown area of Glasgow, Kerrigan was apprenticed on the railways before serving in the Royal Scots from 1918 until 1920. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1921, but left in 1922 after the party declined to oppose Labour Party candidates in the general election.

Kerrigan rejoined the CPGB in 1924 and also became active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union, achieving particular prominence during the British General Strike. He attended the Third Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions and the Fifth Congress of the Comintern and in 1927 was elected to the Executive of the CPGB.

In 1929, Kerrigan attended the Lenin School in Moscow, and the following year, he was appointed the CPGB's Scottish Organiser. He was active in organising anti-unemployment marches and supporting Willie Gallacher's successful Parliament candidacy in West Fife. In 1935, he became the CPGB's representative to the Comintern, and during the Spanish Civil War he served as commissar for English-speaking volunteers in the International Brigade, then later as the Spanish correspondent of the Daily Worker.