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POLISH GOVERNMENT MINISTER TO PRESENT MEDALS AT DEVON’S ‘LITTLE POLAND ’

On Thu 3 March, the Polish Government’s Min ister for Veterans Affairs, Dr Jan Ciechanowski, will visit the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency’s Ilford Park Polish Home (IPPH) near Newton Abbot, Devon to present staff and a resident with the Polish ‘Pro Memoria’ medal.  During Dr Ciechanowski’s time at the home, part of a wider visit to the UK , he will also meet other residents and thank staff for the work they do to look after elderly Polish war veterans who served with the UK Armed Forces during WWII.

Those being presented with the medal include Mr Mieszyslaw Juny, former PoW, WWII fighter pilot and now Chairman of Ilford Park Residents Committee.  He will also present a medal to Care Worker Mrs Helen Johns, who spent her childhood and later her working life at Ilford Park

The silver ‘Pro Memoria’ Medal was instituted in 2005 by the Polish Government’s ‘Office for Combatants and Oppressed Individuals’. It is conferred in a single class to honour individuals who have contributed to commemorating the people who fought for the independence of Poland during and after World War II.   

Ends

Notes to Editors:

Background to Ilford Park Polish Home (known locally as ‘Little Poland ’).

1. After the Second World War the majority of Polish troops who had fought alongside the western allies, and came under British Command, were not able to return to a communist dominated Poland .  For many, because of political changes, their region in their homeland had become part of the Soviet-controlled territory.  Many also feared being taken as political prisoners.
2. Due to the immense war efforts of the Poles, they were seen by the UK Government, and perceived in the wider community, as a 'special case'. Churchill singled the Poles out as 'special' when in a House of Commons speech he declared that:

“Her Majesty’s government will never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops who have served them so valiantly and for all those who have fought under our command…”Tony Kushner and Katherine Knox (1999); Refugees in an Age of Genocide.

3. The Polish Resettlement Act was passed in 1947 (also known affectionately as the ‘Winston Churchill promise’). The Act placed upon the then Assistance Board (falling now to MOD) the responsibility for meeting the needs, either by cash allowance or maintenance in camps or hostels, of certain classes of Poles and their dependants.  45 resettlement camps were set up across Great Britain , of which Ilford Park was one. Ilford Park Polish Home (IPPH) is now the last remaining home run by the MOD under the Polish Resettlement Act 1947.

For Further Information

For further information, please contact David Johnson, Service Personnel and Veterans Agency press office, on 01253 333041, mobile 07717 882014.