The (Polish) Combatants Memorial Group is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) dedicated to honouring the memory of those Polish heroes – the men, women, and children, whether armed or not – who fought for the democratic freedom of Poland and the rest of Europe in the years following Poland’s restoration of independence at the end of the First World War – and who lived out their lives in Scotland.
Restoration of three separate granites stones of the Polish Naval Association Memorial, bearing the names of deceased members of the Polish Naval Association. Located at St Peter’s Cemetery, Dalbeth, Glasgow.
The Living Memorial is the major purpose of the Group. It consists of participation by the Group’s members at events of remembrance and education and also of the pages of “Monuments and Memorials”.
The translation, editing, layout, design and publication in English of the memoirs of the Polish naval hero, Commodore Eugeniusz Józef Stanisław Pławsk. These memoirs were published in Polish in 2003 as “Fala za Falą” .
The layout, design and printing of “That Polish Ship”, an account of the actions of the Polish destroyer, ORP Piorun on the nights of the Clydebank Blitz (13th /14th March 1941) and her subsequent pursuit and attack on the German battleship Bismarck on the night of May 26th. , a few short weeks after the men of Piorun defended Clydebank and saved the battleship HMS Duke of York and the destroyer HMS Blankney from incendiary bombs as they lay un-manned alongside.
“Scrievers” is the Scots word for writers and “Seannachean” is the Scots Gaidhlig word for story-tellers of history – honoured positions in the community from the days before the written word and after. This Project is designed to find and encourage Poles of the post-war generation in Scotland to write down or record the memories of their fathers, and mothers, of the war years and beyond to their settlement here.
As a registered charity, our Group is committed to raising and spending the finance needed to help achieve its aims.
All of the Group’s members pay annual dues to show their support for our work. Several of them make donations over and above the membership fees or by volunteering their time and effort to uncover the Scottish realities of those we honour.
George E Pławski, Vancouver, Canada : Dr Denis Agnew, KROZ, Clydebank
† Ian R Forsyth, MBE † : Anna Pacewicz, Kresy-Siberia Foundation, Sydney, Australia
Tomasz Miegoń, Dyrektor, Polish Naval Museum, Gdynia
“za naszą i waszą wolność – for our freedom and yours”