She was dubbed the Scottish Scarlet Pimpernel, became an international celebrity and then, it seemed, dropped out of history.
Now the story of Scotland's own heroine of the Spanish Civil War - who travelled from Bellshill to Barcelona to help fight General Franco's Fascist rebellion in 1936 - is to be told for the first time.
Ethel MacDonald, a committed anarchist from her teens, felt compelled to leave Scotland and take part in the Socialist opposition to Franco.
Becoming the voice of the Republic on the CNT Radio station of Barcelona, she was heard across Europe and America, filed some of the first reports of the 1937 May Riots, when 400 people were killed in street fighting in the Catalonian capital, wrote for newspapers and was finally captured and imprisoned by communist rivals.
She later remarked: "I went to Spain full of hopes and dreams. It promised the Utopia realised. I return full of sadness, dulled by the tragedy I have seen."
MacDonald, caught in the sectarian infighting which marred the Left's response to Franco, became blacklisted and was under constant surveillance by Stalin's secret police.
She was charged with espionage and crimes against the state but eventually her friend and confidante, leading socialist and journalist Fenner Brockway, secured her release.
Now her remarkable story is to be told in a television documentary. The film, Ethel MacDonald - An Anarchist's Story, will be broadcast on BBC2 on Wednesday, marking the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
While the UK government officially remained neutral to events engulfing Spain, thousands of Britons joined the International Brigades to fight Franco's forces. Around one-third of all British volunteers were from the Glasgow area.
Born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, in 1909, MacDonald became involved in politics as a campaigner for women's rights and left home at 16.
When she was 27, she hitchhiked across Europe and arrived in Barcelona to find the city in the midst of heavy fighting. As a pacifist, she decided her part in the struggle would be with propaganda, rather than violence, and began producing a newsletter, in English. Broadcasting on the trades unions' radio service, her broad accent became well known as she delivered regular updates on the struggle.
She went on to help dozens of fellow activists escape by setting up secret lines of communication between Spain and France, earning herself the name "the Scots Scarlet Pimpernel" in the UK press.
After she was arrested, questions over her fate were asked in the House of Commons. While in jail, she risked execution by setting up a smuggling network using empty food cans to get letters out.
She was deported to France and returned, disillusioned, to Glasgow. She continued to work in politics and was an ardent feminist campaigner until she died of multiple sclerosis in 1960.
Chris Dolan, who wrote the film, said: "I think she is a Scottish heroine, but she was not well known for many years. We don't know if she took part in fighting, it was pretty much all hands to the pump' in Barcelona at that time, and we know she took gun lessons."
Alison Murphy, producer of the show, discovered MacDonald's story while working on a documentary about George Orwell, who also fought the fascists in the Spanish Civil War.
Ms Murphy said: "She led such an incredible life, I felt it was important to bring it to a wider audience."
Ethel MacDonald - An Anarchist's Story is to be broadcast on BBC2 Scotland on January 24 at 9pm.
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