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Introducing
The Institute
of Polish
Military History
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
The Polish Heritage Society
New Chopin Monument on Display at Manchester Concert
Chopin Monument in Manchester—Design study by Robert SobocinskiA model of a monument to Fryderyk Chopin to be erected in Manchester early in 2011 was unveiled at a concert in the city on 4th November 2010 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth. The concert was held in the magnificent new concert hall of Manchester Grammar School in the city where Chopin himself played on 28th August 1848, the year before his death.
The Polish Heritage Society conceived the idea of a monument. The final work by Robert Sobocinski, a Polish artist from Poznan who attended the concert, is a stylised bronze of Chopin seated at the piano. The bronze includes material dating from 1831, the year of the November Uprising by Poles against the Russian Empire. The 2.5 metre wide statue will sit on a natural stone plinth two metres high. The project conceived by the Polish Heritage Society.
The concert programme of Chopin’s music was played by the distinguished young Manchester-born pianist Jason Hawkins, while the Australian soprano Emma Hall sang in both English and Polish. The third part of the concert consisted of a performance by the Corps of Drums of The Fusiliers’ Association and the Oldham Scottish Pipe Band.
Among those attending the concert were the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, Colonel Warren J. Smith JP, the Consul General of the Republic of Poland, Piotr Nowotniak, and the Chairman of The Chopin Memorial Statue Committee, Christian Wewer, and Dr. Marek Stella-Sawicki and Dr. Andrew Meeson, Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Polish Heritage Society. Also represented was one of the project sponsors, “Life for a Life” Memorial Forests. Other guests from English and Polish organisations, among them Polish ex-combatants, included the Chairman of SPK Manchester Dr. A. Rózycki, the Director of the St Stanislaw Kostka Polish School in Manchester, Ms Barbara Goodwin, and, from the Anglo-Polish Society, Mr. R. Kowalski.