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A Polish Flame on a Polish Grave - 2010

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A message from our President, General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank

'I am delighted to be associated with the work of the Polish Heritage Society and very honoured to serve as its President. The Society's work highlights the enormous contribution which generations of Poles have made to their adopted country. Preserving and celebrating that heritage will only further strengthen the ties between Poland and the United Kingdom.

I worked closely with the Society on the project to build a memorial to the Polish Forces at the National Memorial Arboretum and saw at first hand the energy and dedication of those involved.

I encourage you to explore this website and learn about the many other projects the Society has sponsored. Do please contact us if you would like to be involved in any way'.

General The Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB LVO OBE

A Debt of Dishonour is a unique documentary film dedicated Major General Sosabowski and all ranks who served in the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group and to their Comrades-in-Arms of the 1st British Airborne Division that fought in the ill-fated “Operation Market Garden” at Arnhem and Driel during September 1944.

Sto Lat-Albert Hall

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The Polish Heritage Society

A Polish Flame on a Polish Grave - 2010

More than 500 volunteers across the United Kingdom have taken part in the PHS-sponsored campaign A Polish Flame on a Polish Grave (see gallery below). Candles were lit at the graves of Poles from all walks of life, buried at more than 50 cemeteries in Scotland, Wales, the Midlands and all over London in the run-up to All Saints' Day on November 1st. They included officers and soldiers from the Polish Army, members of the political and cultural elite, and ordinary people whose lives had ended in their adopted country and whose families are no longer there to tend graves.

We would like to thank the dedicated individuals and organisations who responded to our appeal, cleaning graves and lighting more than 1,000 candles provided by the PHS, including Polish schools, Polish Scouts and Girl Guides, the National Polish Tourist Board, Polish Embassy, SPK, the London Polish internet Radio, Poland Street and SPK, Polish Catholic Mission. The list is so long that it is not possible to mention everybody, and we hope to mobilise even more people next year.

sawicki1 Dr Stella-Sawicki at Gunnersbury CemeteryDr. Marek Stella-Sawicki and Philip Bujak of the PHS even managed to light a candle on the grave of Father Jozef Jarzebowski, who is buried in Fawley Court, Henley on Thames, where Father Jarzebowski founded the Divine Mercy College for the Marian Fathers. Access to the estate is now heavily restricted by the current owners.

Other PHS members, Dr. Andrew Meeson, his wife Anita and Malgorzata Alterman, had to use saws and rakes to clear away the bushes which had completely covered the graves in the so-called Polish Poets' Corner at the Hampstead Cemetery in London. Literary figures buried there include Zygmunt Nowakowski, Teodozja Lisiewicz, Kazimierz Wierzynski, Antoni Borman, Krystyna Herling-Grudzinska and Tadeusz Sulkowski.

Special thanks go to the volunteers who acted as coordinators for each cemetery: Lukasz Boryczko, Monika Bojarska, Cecylia Barbara Brulinska, Przemek Jewczuk, Alexandra Rymaszewska, Rev W Wyszowadzki, Dr Rozycki, Barbara Iwula, Marek Straczynski, Urszula Kalus, Eliza Davies, Michal Drewenski, Teresa Stella-Sawicka, Robert Nowakowski, Sylwia Bednarz i Czarek Jedrzycki, Malgorzata Wydrych, Jan Jankowski, Anita Komornicka, Joanna Dudzic, Danuta Osinska, Zofia de Montfort, Krystyna Olliffe, Katarzyna Nowakowska, Elzbieta Barras, Anna Maria Norman, Malgorzata Sedzielewska, Asia Barton, Ewa Kopacka, Konrad Matyszczak, Mateusz Zimny, Rev. Chodorowski.

Dr. Marek Stella-Sawicki
drmarksawicki (at) hotmail.com
Tel: 0783 4583206