Krystyna Magdalena Munk (29 April 1913 – 15 March 1999) was a Polish medical doctor who completed her studies at the

Polish School of Medicine The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh was established in March 1941. Initially, the idea was to meet the needs of the Polish Armed Forces for doctors but from the outstart, civilian students were admitted. Founded on the ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She was awarded a

King's Commendation for Brave Conduct The Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct, formerly the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct, acknowledged brave acts by both civilians and members of the armed services in both war and peace, for gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. Est ...

Early life and education

She was born in

Zadworze Zadworze is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Urzędów, within Kraśnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Urzędów, north of Kraśnik, and south-west of the regional capital Lu ...

near Lwow (now

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

) in Eastern Poland to Ludwik and Antonina (née Frysz) Munk. She was the sister of

Andrzej Munk Andrzej Munk (16 October 1921 – 20 September 1961) was a Polish film director, screen writer and documentalist. He was one of the most influential artists of the post-Stalinist period in the People's Republic of Poland. His feature films '' Ma ...

. In 1932, she passed the Matura, the high school leaving certificate, at the Emilia Plater secondary school in Cracow. She went directly from school to the city's

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

to study biology, but the following year, 1933, she changed her course to medicine, receiving an "absolutorium" (certificate of completion) in 1938.

War experience

She was undertaking hospital training in Athens, Greece, when war broke out, and returned to Lwow where she was sent to a military field hospital in Tarnopol. Following the Soviet occupation of the area, she returned to Athens via Hungary and Romania, traveling from there to Marseille, where the Polish Consulate found her a medical post on the Polish merchant ship, SS Warszawa, which transported troops and weapons across the Mediterranean. She worked there for two years until the ship was sunk by a German torpedo on December 26, 1941. Munk supervised the ship's evacuation and, along with the captain, was among the last to leave. They were rescued by the British corvette HMS Peony and taken to Tobruk. She was awarded a

in the Merchant Navy and received a congratulatory letter from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in recognition of her brave conduct.

Life in Scotland

She reached England in April 1942 on a naval convoy, and went to Scotland in May where she joined the

in order to complete her studies. She graduated with an M.B.Ch.B. on 21 April 1943, and was awarded a doctorate on 29 June 1946. She stayed in Edinburgh after the war as a GP, and married the naval architect Symington McDonald. Towards the end of her life, she lost her sight and developed Parkinson's Disease, dying in Edinburgh in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munk, Krystyna Magdalena 1913 births 1999 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Recipients of the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct Polish military doctors Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom 20th-century Polish Jews Polish general practitioners