Literary Association of the Friends of Poland is a British organisation of solidarity with

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

, founded February 25, 1832 in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

by the Scottish poet

Thomas Campbell Thomas Campbell may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Thomas Campbell (poet) (1777–1844), Scottish poet * Thomas Campbell (sculptor) (1790–1858), Scottish sculptor * Thomas Campbell (visual artist) (born 1969), California-based visual artist ...

and German lawyer Adolphus Bach. Although the creation of the LAFP was the result of deep pro-Polish sympathies of Campbell and the whole contemporary British public opinion, Prince

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (; lt, Аdomas Jurgis Čartoriskis; 14 January 177015 July 1861), in English known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author. The son of a wealthy prince, he began his political c ...

did attend a dinner for the association, in Edinburgh 1835 along with Count Zamoyski.

History

Thomas Campbell was the Society's first President, and the first secretary was a young Anglo-Irishman, Richard Graves Meredith. The main goal of the society was to sustain the interest of British public opinion in the Polish question after the failure of the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

. Its members included many influential British political figures, e.g. Sir

Francis Burdett Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (25 January 1770 – 23 January 1844) was a British politician and Member of Parliament who gained notoriety as a proponent (in advance of the Chartists) of universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vo ...

, Dudley Ryder,

Robert Cutlar Fergusson Robert Cutlar Fergusson (1768–1838) was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was 17th Laird of the Dumfriesshire Fergussons, seated at Craigdarroch (Moniaive, Dumfriesshire). Life Robert Fergusson was born in Dumfries, the eldest son of Alexa ...

, Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart,

Thomas Wentworth Beaumont Thomas Wentworth Beaumont (5 November 1792 – 20 December 1848) of Bretton Hall, Wakefield in Yorkshire, and of Bywell Hall in Northumberland, was a British politician and soldier. In 1831, at the time he inherited his mother's estate, he was t ...

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, Thomas Attwood and Patrick Stuart. There were also a number of regional associations created in 1832 which supported the main association in London: these were: ''Hull Literary Polish Society'' (founded in July 1832), ''Glasgow Polish Association'' (founded in October 1832), and the ''Birmingham Polish Association'' (founded in October 1832). Maude Ashurst Biggs and her mother were enthusiastic supporters in the 1880s. Biggs published English translations of

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

's epic poetry. In 1882 she published her translation of Mickiewicz's epic poem

Konrad Wallenrod ''Konrad Wallenrod'' is an 1828 narrative poem, in Polish, by Adam Mickiewicz, set in the 14th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Mickiewicz wrote it, while living in St. Petersburg, Russia, in protest against the late-18th-century partitions o ...

which had somehow not been censored by the Russians and in 1885 she published her translation of another of his epic poems ''Master Thaddeus, or, The Last Foray in Lithuania'' to assist the cause.

History

References

Further reading

See also