Joseph Devine (originally Wilniewczyc) was born in Glasgow in 1953. His father, Adam Wilniewczyc, was born in Irkutsk, Siberia, of Polish parents in 1902. On returning to Poland in the 1920s, Adam trained as a sailor and became a merchant seaman sailing out of Gydnia. His last ship was the Polish ocean liner MS Batory. During the War, the ship took part in many military actions, including the evacuation of the French-Polish-British corps from Narvik, the evacuation of allied troops from St. Nazaire and St. Jean de Luz, the transfer of the British gold reserves and Polish National treasures to Canada in 1940, the invasion of Algeria and Sicily in 1942, as a troop carrier to India and from Egypt to Italy in 1943 and in the invasion of southern France in 1944. After the war, Adam settled in Glasgow where he married and had two sons. Joseph (Joe) is the youngest. He was educated in Glasgow, graduating from Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities and becoming a successful Chartered Civil Engineer. He has been a member of the Polish Historical Society, the Polish Combatants Association (SPK) and has served as vice-chair for the Polish Social and Educational Society in Glasgow. Now retired, Joe spends his time between part-time work for Glasgow University and family life with his partner, Julie, and his three daughters and five grand-children.
Antony Kozłowski was born in Glasgow, Scotland, during the Second World War. He’s the son of Henryk Kozłowski from Warsaw, a hero of the Student Battalions during the defence of Warsaw in 1920, who later became manager of a national forest near Lwów. On the fall of Poland in 1939, Henryk was ordered to escape along with other government officials. He joined the Polish Army in the West as an instructor in the Polish Army Warrant Officer Training School at Coetquidan-St.Cyr in Brittany. Escaping again after the fall of France, he arrived in Scotland via Liverpool and was posted to the 10th Armoured Cavalry Division. After volunteering for training as one of the Cichociemni, the “silent and unseen” secret agents who were parachuted back into Poland to assist the Armia Krajowa, the Home Army, he was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief’s intelligence bureau in London. He served on ORP Garland and ORP Piorun as Reporting Officer and finished his war as 3rd Officer Commanding Polish Naval Forces (Northern). Antony followed his father into the military and intelligence work but later spent most of his life in Canada. He is a volunteer researcher for the In From The Cold project specialising in the First World War, a director of the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council, the Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector and a past-Chair and patron of the Polish Social & Educational Society in Glasgow. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Royal British Legion Scotland.
John Lassa was born in Glasgow in 1955. He is the son of Polish naval hero, Bolesław Lassa, and Jessie, née Maxton. One of seven children, Bolesław was born in 1907 in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) in the Kujawska Pomerania region of what was then Germany. In 1927, he joined the fledgling Polish Navy and went on to carve out a highly distinguished career. On the 30th August, aboard ORP Grom, he was part of a group that sailed past the German Navy to Rosyth, Scotland, from where they went on to join British naval forces, but under the command of Polish captains. He survived the sinking of Grom in May of 1940 and was transferred to ORP Ouragan until joining the new Polish destroyer ORP Piorun in October. Here, he again served with great distinction, being involved in the defence of Clydebank during the Blitz in March 1941 and later in the action against the German battleship Bismarck, for which he was decorated by King George VI with the DSO (Distinguished Service Medal) for his gallantry as a gunner. In November 1942, he was transferred to the ORP Orkan, serving as a Chief Petty Officer until the ship’s untimely sinking by a German U-boat on the 8th October 1943 south of Iceland. Hospitalised for two years following this disaster, the worst maritime loss of life in Polish history, Bolesław returned to sea duties in 1946 and saw out his career in the Polish Resettlement Corps. After settling in Glasgow and working as a butcher, he became heavily involved in the world-wide Polish Naval Association, overseeing the erection of the Association Memorial in Dalbeth Cemetery and remaining its only Honorary President until his death in 1976. John Lassa honoured his father’s commitment to the Association by serving, including as President, until it was wound up in 2009 when the last Polish sailor member passed away. He then continued his father’s legacy by privately commemorating Polish Navy events until, with others, he formed our Combatants Memorial Group at the Polish Club in Glasgow in 2016. With the Group, he now commemorates all events where the Polish forces, Army, Air Force and Navy fought and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Eileen McCaffrey is the daughter of a Polish sailor, Eugeniusz Tatowicz. He was born in Rajsko, Kraków, in December 1921, and brought up in Nowy Sącz. He was one of four boys and two girls. His father worked in the railways. When war broke out, a group from Nowy Sącz fled the Germans and, like others, had many ordeals before they eventually reached free France where he volunteered for the Polish Navy there. The last ship he served on was ORP Ślązak. Eugeniusz met Eileen’s mother in Plymouth, and they were married in 1946. After Eileen’s was born, he decided to become a British national and was granted citizenship. Twenty-one years later, the family was able to visit Poland and Eileen could meet her Babcia. Regrettable, her Dziadek had died in 1947. Like many of us who visited Poland in those days, Eileen remembers that she had to report to the local authorities if she moved out of one area to another for more than twenty-four hours. Eileen and her father were able to go home again at Christmas-time 2004. It was her father’s first Christmas at home in Poland since 1938. Christmas always brought memories of his family in Poland. Eugeniusz died on January 27th 2011. Eileen joined our Group to help keep alive the memory of what happened to so many Polish servicemen and women after the war and to represent her father at the many annual events of remembrance.
Robert Ostrycharz was born in Edinburgh in 1948. His father, Stanisław Ostrycharz, was born in 1912 in the village of Parcice, then in Russia. In the late 1920s, Stanisław left Poland to find work in Belgium. In October 1939, with other Polish patriots, he left Belgium to join the the Polish Army which was then re-forming in France. In late June 1940, he was evacuated by ship to Britain and posted to the 1st Anti-Tank Company in Scotland. In 1943 he was transferred to the 9th Rifle Battalion of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. Following his recovery from wounds received in the fighting for Ghent in Belgium in September 1944, he returned to the Division where he remained until April 1947. He eventually settled in Leith and died in 1959, aged 47. Robert, while working for the Polish Community in Glasgow, has for many years taken a special interest in the life and times of the Polish Forces during and after the Second World War, particularly in Scotland. He has helped many individuals to better understand their father’s/grandfather’s wartime record from their official military documents and provided assistance to many individuals asking about the Polish presence in Scotland. In 1999, he published a book about the Polish war graves in Scotland. He has been a Patron of the General Stanisław Maczek Memorial Trust. His work over the years was recognised in May 2016 by the President of the Republic of Poland with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit. As an independent researcher, Robert maintains a website at www.polishforcesinbritain.info and, still working on these records, will help all who want to learn more about this subject.
Stephen Stelmaszuk was born in 1957 to Aleksander and Margaret Stelmaszuk in Govan, Glasgow. He is one of thirteen children but, tragically, his sister Margaret died in infancy before he was born and the eldest, Jan, died in 2015. Aleksander Stelmaszuk was born in Uhrusk, near Chelm, where the Polish branch of the family remain to this day. He was born a week overdue to Marcin Stelmaszuk and Aniela, née Kowalczuk, on 8th April 1912. Aleksander was called to serve in the army for national service from 1933 to 1935. He was recalled during the crisis in 1939 and served with the 25th Uhlans before being captured by the Soviets near Wladypol, now in Ukraine, in September and deported to Archangel, Siberia, until September 1942. On his release under the amnesty, he made his way to Uzbekistan and joined General Anders’ army, subsequently crossing the Caspian Sea to Persia (now Iran) then to Iraq, Palestine, South Africa and Gibraltar before being shipped to Scotland in November 1942. On arrival, he was sent to the Polish holding corps which later became the 10th Armoured Dragoons of the 1st Polish Armoured Division under General Maczek. He went to Normandy with Maczek and was badly wounded at Falaise in August 1944. After the war, Aleksander made his home in Glasgow, working first for the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and then at his old trade of blacksmith for Glasgow District Council. Aleksander died in 1985.
Kazimierz Wroblewski is the son of Ryszard Wróblewski and Lucja, née Bukowska. Kazimierz was born in 1965. He is married to Marzena (née Karwacka) and they have two children. Ryszard Wroblewski was born in Pinsk, now in Belarus, Lucja in Stawiszyn. Little is known of Ryszard’s early life but he did tell of how his parents were transported to Siberia during Stalin’s purges. On the outbreak of war, Ryszard escaped through Romania and Hungary and joined the Polish Independent Highland Brigade in France under General Szyszko-Bohusz. In May and June of 1940, Ryszard took part in the Norway campaign and the battles of Narvik. Returned to France, his brigade fought in the defence of Brittany until it was disbanded and some of its soldiers, including Ryszard, were evacuated to Britain where they became part of General Maczek’s First Armoured Division at Duns. After D-Day, the division fought through France (where Ryszard was awarded the Cross of Valour), Belgium and Holland and effected the capture of the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven. There, at the nearby prison camp at Oberlangen, Ryszard met Lucja. She had been taken from her home at age seventeen into the Nazi forced labour machine. Ryszard and Lucja married in Germany and, having no home to return to in Poland, were eventually moved to Somerset after the war. In 1950, they moved to Scotland but life for Lucja was always hard. The camps had left an indelible scar. Lucja died in August of 2001 and Ryszard in December. They had been together for over fifty years.
