Robert Somerville was until yesterday one of the few people in Britain to be both a card-carrying communist and a Member of the British Empire.
Now the retired engineer from Motherwell is an even rarer breed, having been awarded, along with two former work-mates, the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins medal.
The medal is the highest honour which the Chilean government can bestow upon foreign citizens and comes in recognition of their part in opposing the Pinochet dictatorship.
All three men can now call themselves “Comendador” — or Commander, as they say in South Lanarkshire. “What an honour,” Mr Somerville said. “It makes me doubly proud when I think about what we did.”
He and his colleagues, Bob Fulton and John Keenan, are the surviving members