British Poles, alternatively known as Polish British people or Polish Britons, are ethnic
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 ...
who are citizens of the
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 ...
. The term includes people born in the UK who are of Polish descent and Polish-born people who reside in the UK. There are approximately 700,000 people born in Poland resident in the UK. Since the late 20th century, they have become one of the
largest ethnic minorities in the country alongside
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Indians,
Pakistanis
Pakistanis ( ur, , translit=Pākistānī Qaum, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. According to the 2017 Pakistani national census, the population of Pakistan stood at over 213 million people, making it the w ...
,
Bangladeshis
Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay.
Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when th ...
,
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
, and
Chinese. The
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In ad ...
is the second-most spoken language in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
and the third-most spoken in the UK after English and
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
. About 1% of the UK population speaks Polish. The Polish population in the UK has increased more than tenfold since 2001.
Exchanges between the two countries date to medieval times, when the
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
On ...
and the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
were linked by trade and diplomacy. A notable 16th-century Polish resident in England was
John Laski
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
, a Protestant convert who influenced the course of the
English Reformation
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
and helped in establishing the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
. Following the 18th-century dismemberment of the Commonwealth in
three successive partitions by Poland's neighbours, the trickle of Polish immigrants to Britain increased in the aftermath of two 19th-century uprisings (
1831
Events
January–March
* January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing '' The Liberator'', an anti- slavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts.
* January 10 – Japanese department store, Takashimaya in Ky ...
and
1863
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaim ...
) that forced much of Poland's social and political elite into exile.
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
became a haven for the burgeoning ideas of Polish socialism as a solution for regaining independence as it sought international support for the forthcoming
Polish uprising
This is a chronological list of military conflicts in which Polish armed forces fought or took place on Polish territory from the reign of Mieszko I (960–992) to the ongoing military operations.
This list does not include peacekeeping operation ...
. A number of Polish exiles fought in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
on the British side. In the late 19th century governments mounted
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
s against
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...
in the Russian (
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...
) and Austrian sectors of partitioned Poland (
Galicia
Galicia may refer to:
Geographic regions
* Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain
** Gallaecia, a Roman province
** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia
** The medieval King ...
). Many Polish Jews fled their partitioned homeland, and most
emigrated to the United States, but some settled in British cities, especially
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
,
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
and
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south- ...
.
The number of Poles in Britain increased during the
Second World War
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 opposi ...
. Most of the Polish people who came to the United Kingdom at that time came as part of military units reconstituted outside Poland after the German-Soviet
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...
in September 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II. On 3 September 1939, Britain and France, which were allied with Poland, declared war on Germany. Poland moved
its government abroad, first to France and, after its fall in May 1940, to London. The Poles
contributed greatly to the Allied war effort; Polish naval units were the first Polish forces to integrate with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
under the "
Peking Plan
The Peking Plan"Peking" was one contemporary spelling for the city now spelled 'Beijing' in English. In modern Polish the name is written as "Pekin". Some modern Polish works refer to the "Pekin Plan". The original orders used the spelling " ...
". Polish pilots played a conspicuous role in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
and the Polish army formed in Britain later participated in the
Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. The great majority of Polish military veterans were stranded in Britain after the Soviet Union imposed communist control on Poland after the war. This particularly concerned Polish soldiers from eastern areas, which were no longer part of Poland as a result of
border changes due to the
Potsdam Agreement
The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...
. The
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
, though denied majority international recognition after 1945, remained at its post in London until it formally dissolved in 1991, after a democratically elected president had taken office in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
.
The
European Union's 2004 enlargement and the
UK Government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_est ...
's decision to allow immigration from the new
accession states, encouraged Polish people to move to Britain rather than
to Germany. Additionally, the Polish diaspora in Britain includes descendants of the nearly 200,000 Polish people who had originally settled in Britain after the Second World War. About one-fifth had moved to settle in other parts of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
.
History
![Poland Street, London](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Poland_Street%2C_London.JPG)
A Polish cleric named
John Laski
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
(1499–1560), nephew of
Jan Łaski
Jan Łaski or Johannes à Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560) was a Polish Calvinist reformer. Owing to his influential work in England (1548–1553) during the English Reformation, he is known to the English-speaking world by the Anglicised form J ...
(1456–1531), converted to
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...
while in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...
, Switzerland, where he became an associate of
Archbishop Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry's ...
. After moving to London, in 1550 he was superintendent of the
Strangers' Church of London and had some influence on ecclesiastical affairs in the reign of
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...
.
Laski also spent some years working on the establishment of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
.
Shortly before his death, he was recalled to Poland's royal court.
In the 16th century, when most
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
imports to the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...
came from Poland, Polish merchants and diplomats regularly travelled there, usually on the
Eastland Company
The Eastland Company, or North Sea Company, was an English crown-chartered company, founded in 1579 to foster trade with Scandinavia and Baltic Sea states. Like the better-known Russia Company, this was an attempt by the English to challenge the ...
trade route from
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
mentions Polish people in his play ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'' (e.g. "sledded polack"), which
Israel Gollancz
Sir Israel Gollancz, FBA (13 July 1863 – 23 June 1930) was a scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare. He was Professor of English Language and Literature at King's College, London, from 1903 to 1930.
Gollancz was born 13 July 1 ...
attributes to influence of the book, ''
De optimo senatore'' (The Accomplished Senator), by
Laurentius Grimaldius Goslicius (Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki, a Polish bishop and noble). Gollancz further speculated that the book inspired Shakespeare to create the character
Polonius
Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. He is chief counsellor of the play's ultimate villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of ...
, which is
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
for "Polish".
After Poland's
King John III, at the head of a coalition of European armies, defeated the invading
Ottoman forces at the
1683 Ottoman siege of Vienna, a pub in London's
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
district was named "The King of Poland" in his honour, and soon afterward the street on which it stands was named Poland Street (and continues to be so to this day). In the 18th century, Polish
Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
settled around Poland Street as religious refugees fleeing the
Catholic Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
in Poland.
18th century
![Bacciarelli Stanislaus Augustus in a feathered hat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Bacciarelli_Stanislaus_Augustus_in_a_feathered_hat.jpg)
As a young man of the
Enlightenment, and already befriended by a Welsh diplomat, Sir
Charles Hanbury Williams
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, KB (8 December 1708 – 2 November 1759) was a Welsh diplomat, writer and satirist. He was a Member of Parliament from 1734 until his death.
Early life
Hanbury was the son of a Welsh ironmaster and Member of Parl ...
, the young
Stanislaus Poniatowski Stanislav and variants may refer to:
People
*Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.)
Places
* Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine
* Stanislaus County, Cali ...
, future and last
King of Poland
Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...
, stayed in Britain for some months during 1754. On this trip he also came to know
Charles Yorke
Charles Yorke Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (30 December 172220 January 1770) was briefly Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. His father was also Lord Chancellor, and he began his career as a Member of Parliament. ...
, the
Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
![Dulwich Picture Gallery, main entrance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Dulwich_Picture_Gallery%2C_main_entrance.JPG)
In 1788, during the closing years of
Stanislaus Augustus Stanislav and variants may refer to:
People
*Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.)
Places
* Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine
* Stanislaus County, Cali ...
' reign, after the
first Partition of Poland in 1772, the Polish called a special assembly, known to history as the
Four Years Diet or "Great Sejm" whose great achievement was to be the
Constitution of 3 May 1791
The Constitution of 3 May 1791,; lt, Gegužės trečiosios konstitucija titled the Governance Act, was a constitution adopted by the Great Sejm ("Four-Year Sejm", meeting in 1788–1792) for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dual mo ...
. In that period Poland sought support from the
Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...
in its negotiations with
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
in an effort to stave off further threats from Russia and from its own plotting
magnates
The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...
.
In 1790, King Stanislaus Augustus sent
Michał Kleofas Ogiński
Michał Kleofas Ogiński (25 September 176515 October 1833) was a Polish diplomat and politician, Grand Treasurer of Lithuania, and a senator of Tsar Alexander I. He was also a composer of early Romantic music.
Early life
Ogiński was born i ...
(also a composer and mentor to
Frederic Chopin Frederic may refer to:
Places United States
* Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County
* Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County
** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community
Other uses
* Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...
) on an embassy to London to meet with Prime Minister
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
. The British were prepared, along with the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, to propose a favourable commercial treaty for Polish goods, especially flax, if Poland ceded the cities of
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
and
Toruń
)''
, image_skyline =
, image_caption =
, image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg
, image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg
, nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town
, pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...
to the Prussians. This condition was unacceptable to Poland.
Stanislaus Augustus also commissioned the London art dealership of Bourgeois and Desenfans to assemble a collection of
paintings for Poland to encourage arts in the Commonwealth. The dealers fulfilled their commission, but five years later Poland as a state ceased to exist following the
third and final Partition. The art collection destined for Poland became the nucleus of the
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest publi ...
in South London.
19th century
In the 19th century, Polish-British relations took on a cultural dimension, with musical tours in the United Kingdom by virtuosos and composers including
Maria Szymanowska
Maria Szymanowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born Marianna Agata Wołowska; Warsaw, 14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She tour ...
,
Frederic Chopin Frederic may refer to:
Places United States
* Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County
* Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County
** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community
Other uses
* Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...
,
Maria Kalergis and
Henryk Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski (; 10 July 183531 March 1880) was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer and pedagogue who is regarded amongst the greatest violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski were al ...
.
![Frederic Chopin photo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Frederic_Chopin_photo.jpeg)
During the
November 1830 Uprising against the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, British military equipment and armaments were sent to Poland, facilitated by the presence of Leon Łubieński studying at
Edinburgh University
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 1582 ...
at the time and the swift despatch to Britain of his uncle, Józef, to secure the shipment. After the collapse of the rebellion in 1831, many Polish exiles sought sanctuary in Britain.
One of them was the veteran and inventor,
Edward Jełowicki, who took out a
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
in London on his
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
. The fall of Warsaw and the arrival of the Poles on British shores prompted 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 ...
with others to create in 1832 a
Literary Association of the Friends of Poland, with the aim of keeping British public opinion informed of Poland's plight. The Association had several regional centres; one of its meetings was addressed by the Polish statesman, Count
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 ...
. Czartoryski's permanent representative at the
Court of St James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – & ...
was General Count
Władysław Stanisław Zamoyski
Count Władysław Stanisław Zamoyski (24 March 1803 - 11 January 1868) was a Polish nobleman, politician, and general.
Zamoyski was the owner of estates in Cewków. He served as aide-de-camp to Grand Duke Constantine, commander-in-chief of ...
, who later led a division in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
on the British side against Russia. Zamoyski's adjutant was another Polish exile, an officer in the 5th Sultan's Cossacks—a Polish cavalry division—Colonel
Stanisław Julian Ostroróg
Count Stanisław Julian Ostroróg (1836– 31 May 1890) was an exiled Polish nobleman and Crimean War veteran. He later became known as an early professional portrait photographer who created photogravures, under the professional name of '' ...
. The last official Polish envoy to Britain was the statesman, writer, and
futurologist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
,
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz ( , ; 6 February 1758 – 21 May 1841) was a Polish poet, playwright and statesman. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
Early life
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was born 6 February 1758 in Skoki, near ...
(1758–1841).
The
1848 revolutions in Europe gave impetus to a number of Polish socialist activists to settle in London and establish the ''"Gromada Londyn"'' between 1855 and 1861. They sought support from other European activists who were in the city forming the
First Internationale
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organization, international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different Left-wing politics, left-wing So ...
. The social connections formed between Poland and Britain encouraged the influential Polish
Łubieński family to forge further trade links between the two countries. The
anglophile
An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents.
Etymology
The word is derived from the Latin word ''Anglii'' and Ancient Greek word φίλος ''philos'', meaning "frien ...
banker,
Henryk Łubieński
Henryk Jan Nepomucen Łubieński, Pomian coat of arms, (11 July 1793, in Prague – 17 September 1883, in Wiskitki, Poland) – was the scion of a Polish magnate family, landowner, financier, lawyer, early industrialist, economic activist, an ...
prompted his business associate and Polish "King of Zinc",
Piotr Steinkeller, to open ''The London Zinc Works'' off
Wenlock Road in London's
Hoxton
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. I ...
in 1837, with a view to exporting zinc sheeting to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Moreover, two of Łubieński's grandsons were sent to board at the Catholic
Ushaw College
Ushaw College (formally St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw), is a former Roman Catholic Church, Catholic seminary near the village of Ushaw Moor, County Durham, England, which is now a heritage and cultural tourist attraction. The college is known for ...
in
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
. Other relatives married into the old
recusant
Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
Grimshaw and Bodenham de la Barre family of
Rotherwas. Subsequently, the
Redemptorist
The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...
Venerable
The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism.
Christianity
Cathol ...
Fr.
Bernard Łubieński
Bernard Alojzy Łubieński, ( translit. Bernard Aloysius Lubienski) CSsR, (9 December 1846 – 10 September 1933) was a Polish Redemptorist priest, missionary and writer, closely associated with Bishop Robert Coffin and with the Roman C ...
(1846–1933) spent many years as a Catholic missionary in England. The
Polish Catholic Mission
The Polish Catholic Mission, pl, Polska Misja Katolicka, (PMK) is a permanent Catholic chaplaincy for migrant Poles. It operates in a number of countries under the direction of the Polish Episcopal Conference.
England and Wales
History
The or ...
in England and Wales began its pastoral work for Polish émigrés in 1853 with church services in
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
's Sutton Street and with the arrival of Sr.
Franciszka Siedliska
Maria Franciszka Siedliska (12 November 1842 – 21 November 1902), also known by her religious name Maria of Jesus the Good Shepherd, was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazaret ...
and two other nuns to start a Polish school.
![Marks Michael Slonim](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Marks_Michael_Slonim.jpg)
The next Polish uprising, the
January 1863 Uprising, led to a further influx of Polish political exiles to Britain. Among them were people like
Walery Wróblewski and the only notable Polish
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
and follower of
Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary ...
,
Walery Mroczkowski
Walery Karłowicz Mroczkowski (6 April 1840 – 1 October 1889) was a Polish insurgent in the 1863 January Uprising. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Prussian authorities. Upon release in 1865, he was sent into exile and travelled to Italy, ...
, member of the
First Internationale
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organization, international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different Left-wing politics, left-wing So ...
and opponent of
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
ideology. Polish Jews also fled due to the intensifying anti-Semitic
pogroms
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
and better economic opportunities. Among the notable Polish Jews who came to Britain were
Henry Lowenfeld
Henry Lowenfeld in Polish, ''Henryk Loewenfeld'', (1 September 1859 - 4 November 1931) was a Polish-born British entrepreneur and theatrical impresario. He founded the Kops Brewery, the UK's first UK brewer of non-alcoholic beer, and built Lo ...
theatrical impresario and brewer,
Michael Marks
Michael Marks ( yi, מיכאל מארקס Polish: ''Michał Marks''; 1859? – 31 December 1907) was a businessman and entrepreneur, who with Thomas Spencer co-founded the British retail chain Marks & Spencer.
Biography
Marks was born into a ...
(co-founder of
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
), Morris Wartski (founder of
Wartski
Wartski is a British family firm of antique dealers specialising in Russian works of art; particularly those by Carl Fabergé, fine jewellery and silver. Founded in North Wales in 1865, the business is located at 60 St James's Street, London, SW ...
antique dealers) and the family of
Jack Cohen, the founder of
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
.
![Joseph Conrad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Joseph_Conrad.PNG)
Perhaps the most famous Polish person to settle in Britain at the end of the 19th century, having gained British citizenship in 1886, was the seafarer turned early
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
novelist, Józef Korzeniowski, better known by his
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
,
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
. He was the highly influential author of such works as ''
Almayer's Folly
''Almayer's Folly'' is Joseph Conrad's first novel, published in 1895 by T. Fisher Unwin. Set in the late 19th century, it centres on the life of the Dutch trader Kaspar Almayer in the Borneo jungle and his relationship to his mixed heritage da ...
'', ''
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', ''
Heart of Darkness
''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...
'', ''
Lord Jim
''Lord Jim'' is a novel by Joseph Conrad originally published as a serial in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' from October 1899 to November 1900. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, ...
'', ''
Nostromo
''Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard'' is a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana". It was originally published serially in monthly instalments of '' T.P.'s Weekly''.
In 1998, the Modern Lib ...
'', ''
The Secret Agent
''The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale'' is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907.. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country (presumably Russia). ''The Secret Agent' ...
'', ''The Duel'', ''
Under Western Eyes'' and ''
Victory
The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal Duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitu ...
'', many of which have been turned into films.
At the end of the 19th-century London, along with
Zurich and
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, had become one of the centres of Polish political activism, especially of the left.
Józef Piłsudski
), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Warsaw, Poland
, constituency =
, party = None (formerly PPS)
, spouse =
, children = Wan ...
stayed in
Leytonstone
Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...
after his escape from
St-Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. The political review, "Przedświt" ("Pre-Dawn") was published in
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
for several years, notably under the editorship of Leon Wasilewski 1898–1903, later to become the first foreign minister of a newly independent Poland in 1918.
Both before and after the First World War, a few Poles settled in Londonfollowing the 1905 Russian Revolution, Russian Revolution of 1905 and then in the war, those released from London's prisoner-of-war camps for Germans and Austrians in the Alexandra Palace and at Feltham. In 1910 a sixteen-year old youth from Warsaw settled in London for the sake of his art: he was to be a future ballet master, Stanislas Idzikowski. Polish people living in the Austrian Partition, Austrian and Prussian Partition, German partitions had been obliged to serve in their respective national forces and were unable to return.
The resurgence of an Second Polish Republic, independent Poland in 1918, briefly complicated by the Polish–Soviet War from 1918 to 1920, enabled the country to rapidly reorganise its polity, develop its economy, and resume its place in international forums. One of the Polish delegates at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference, was a London-based émigré, Count Leon Walery Ostroróg, Leon Ostroróg. This two-decade period of advance was disrupted in September 1939 by a coordinated Invasion of Poland, German and Soviet invasion that marked the beginning of World War II.
Second World War
![The German-soviet Invasion of Poland, 1939 HU83158](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/The_German-soviet_Invasion_of_Poland%2C_1939_HU83158.jpg)
It was the Polish contribution to World War II, Polish contribution to the Allied war effort in the United Kingdom that led to the establishment of the postwar Polish community in Britain. During the
Second World War
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 opposi ...
, most of the Poles arrived as military or political émigrés as a result of the combined German-Soviet Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupation of Poland.
As the invasion of Poland progressed throughout September 1939, the Polish government evacuated into Romania and from there to France. Based at first in Paris, it moved to Angers until June 1940, when France capitulated to the Germans.
[Jozef Garlinski ''Poland in the Second World War'', Page 81] With the Fall of France, the Polish Government-in-Exile relocated to London, along with a first wave of at least 20,000 soldiers and airmen in 1940. It was recognized by all the Allied governments. Politically, it was a coalition of the Polish Peasant Party, the Polish Socialist Party, the Labour Party, and the National Party (Poland), National Party. Although these parties maintained only a vestigial existence in the circumstances of the war, the tasks of the Government-in-Exile were immense, requiring open lines of communication with, and control of, the Polish Underground State ''in situ'' and the Polish Underground Army in occupied Poland, and the maintenance of international diplomatic relations for the organization of regular Polish military forces in Allied states.
![Marian Rejewski 1932 small](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Marian_Rejewski_1932_small.jpg)
On 4 July 1943 the Polish Prime Minister-in-Exile, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, who was also Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, died in an air crash off Gibraltar as he was returning to Britain from an inspection tour of Polish forces in the Mediterranean theatre. Until the Germans' April 1943 discovery of mass graves of 28,000 executed Polish military reserve officers at Katyn massacre, Katyn, near Smolensk in Russia, Sikorski had wished to work with the Soviets. After Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviets' importance to the Western alliance had grown while British support for Polish aspirations had begun to decline. As the war progressed, Polish plans to more completely incorporate Poland's underground Home Army into the broader strategy of the Western allies—including contingency plans to move Polish Air Force fighter squadrons, and the Polish Parachute Brigade, to Poland—foundered on British and American reluctance to antagonise a vital Soviet ally hostile to Polish autonomy; on the distance from British-controlled bases to occupied Poland, which lay at the extreme flying range of available aircraft; and on the frittering away of the Polish Parachute Brigade on a patently flawed British operation at Arnhem, the Netherlands.
One of the most important Polish contributions to Allied victory had actually begun in late 1932, nearly seven years before the outbreak of war when the mathematician-cryptology, cryptologist Marian Rejewski, with limited aid from French military intelligence, constructed a double of the sight-unseen German Enigma machine, Enigma cipher machine used by the German civil and military authorities. Five weeks before the outbreak of war, in late July 1939, Rejewski and his fellow cryptologists, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rozycki had disclosed to French and British intelligence in Warsaw the techniques and technologies they had developed for "decryption, breaking" German Enigma ciphers. Poland's ''Biuro Szyfrów'' (Cipher Bureau, operated by the Polish General Staff) gave the British and French an Enigma double, each. This enabled the British, who had been unable to break German Enigma ciphers at Bletchley Park, to develop their "Ultra" operation. At war's end, General Dwight Eisenhower characterized Ultra as having been "decisive" to Allied victory. Former Bletchley Park cryptologist Gordon Welchman wrote: "Ultra would never have got off the ground if we had not learned from the Polish, in the nick of time, details both of the German military... the Enigma machine, and of the operating procedures that were in use [by the Germans]."
Polish Navy
![Peking](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Peking.jpg)
The first Polish military branch to transfer substantial personnel and equipment to the United Kingdom was the Polish Navy. Shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, the Polish government ordered three destroyers, for their protection and in anticipation of joint operations with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
, to sail for Great Britain (Operation Peking). Two submarines also sailed there, the Orzeł incident, ''Orzeł'' (Eagle) arriving unannounced in Scotland after a daring breakout from the Baltic Sea following its illegal internment in Estonia.
![ORP Piorun2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/ORP_Piorun2.jpg)
Polish Navy personnel to come under Royal Navy command comprised 1,400 officers and 4,750 sailors. By chance, Poland's only two ocean-going commercial liners, MS Piłsudski, MS ''Piłsudski'' and MS Batory, MS ''Batory'' were also on the high seas on 1 September 1939 and were both shortly thereafter requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service. The former was lost in November 1939 when it struck a Naval mine, mine off the Yorkshire coast. ''Batory'', dubbed "''the Lucky ship''", became a troop and civilian carrier and hospital ship. It effected a major evacuation during the Battle of Narvik and completed hundreds of convoys on the Mediterranean Sea and on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, before being surrendered to the control of the communist authorities in Warsaw in 1946.
In May 1941, the Polish destroyer ''ORP Piorun (G65), Piorun''—Thunderbolt—was able to locate and engage the world's most powerful battleship, ''Bismarck (battleship), Bismarck'', drawing its fire for an hour while the Royal Navy caught up in time to destroy the German warship.
![Dywizjon 303 in color](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Dywizjon_303_in_color.jpg)
The Poles formed the fourth-largest Allied armed force after the Soviets, the Americans, and the combined troops of the British Empire. They were the largest group of non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain, and the 303 Polish Squadron was the most successful RAF unit in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
. Special Operations Executive had a large section of covert, elite Polish troops who cooperated closely with the Armia Krajowa, Polish underground army.
By July 1945 there were 228,000 troops of the Polish Armed Forces in the West serving under the British.
Many of these men and women came from the ''Kresy'' region (eastern Poland), including from the major cities of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) and Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania). They had been deported by the Soviets from the ''Kresy'' to the gulags when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland in 1939 under the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Two years later, when Churchill and Joseph Stalin formed an alliance against Adolf Hitler, the mostly "''Kresy'' Poles" were released from the Gulags in Siberia to form "Anders' Army" and were made to walk via Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, where thousands perished on the way, to Iran. There the Polish II Corps (Poland), II Corps came into being under British command. They fought in the battles of Battle of Monte Cassino, Monte Cassino, Battle of the Falaise Gap, the Falaise Gap, Battle of Arnhem, Arnhem, Siege of Tobruk, Tobruk, and in the liberation of many European cities, including Bologna and Breda.
![Winston Churchill reviewing Polish troops in England](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Winston_Churchill_reviewing_Polish_troops_in_England.PNG)
The Polish troops who contributed to the Allies of World War II, Allied defeat of the Germans in North Africa and Italy, had expected to be able to return at war's end to their ''Kresy'' (eastern Polish) homeland in an independent and democratic Poland. But at Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill acquiesced in Stalin's Soviet Union annexation of the ''Kresy'' lands (roughly half of pre-war Poland's landmass), in accordance with the provisions of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. This entailed massive Polish population transfers (1944–1946), postwar Polish population deportations to western so-called "Recovered Territories" assigned from Germany to Poland. The great majority of Polish soldiers, sailors, and airmen in the West would never return to their homeland. In apparent reaction to British acquiescence in Poland's postwar future, thirty officers and men of the Polish II Corps committed suicide.
[Olson and Cloud (2003), pp. 374–383.]
Churchill explained the government's actions in a three-day Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliamentary debate, begun on 27 February 1945, which ended in a vote of confidence. Many member of parliament, MPs openly criticised Churchill over Yalta and voiced strong loyalty to the UK's Polish allies.
Churchill may not have been confident that Poland would be the independent and democratic country to which Polish troops could return; he said: "His Majesty's Government will never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops... I earnestly hope it will be possible for them to have citizenship and freedom of the British Empire, if they so desire."
During the debate, 25 MPs and Peers risked their future political careers to draft an amendment protesting against the UK's acceptance of a geographically reconfigured Poland's integration into the Soviet sphere of influence, thereby shifting it westwards into the heart of Europe. These members included Arthur Greenwood, Sir Archibald Southby, 1st Baronet, Sir Archibald Southby, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, James Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 3rd Earl of Ancaster, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and Victor Raikes.
After the amendment was defeated, Henry Strauss, 1st Baron Conesford, Henry Strauss, MP for Norwich (UK Parliament constituency), Norwich, resigned his seat in protest at the British government's abandonment of Poland.
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London are the repository for archival material relating to this period.
Private Wojtek
![wojtek the bear](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Wojtek_the_bear.jpg)
During their 1942 evacuation from the Soviet Union to the Near East, soldiers of the Polish Second Corps had, at an Iranian railroad station, purchased a Syrian brown bear cub. He travelled with them on the Polish troop-transport ship ''SS Kościuszko, Kościuszko'' and subsequently accompanied them to Egypt and to the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian campaign. In Italy he helped shift ammunition crates and became a celebrity with visiting Allied generals and statesmen.
In order to bring him to Italy, as regimental mascots and pets were not allowed onboard transport ships, the bear was formally enrolled as Private Wojciech Perski (his surname being the Polish adjective meaning "Persian"; Wojtek is the diminutive for ''Wojciech'').
After the war, mustered out of the Polish Army, Wojtek was billeted, and lived out his retirement, at the Edinburgh Zoo, where he was visited by fellow exiles and former Polish comrades-in-arms and won the affection of the public. Posthumously he has inspired books, films, plaques, and statues in the UK and Poland.
Post World War II
Polish Resettlement Corps 1946–49
Following the invasion of Poland in September 1939, many thousands of Polish servicemen and women made their way via Hungary and Romania (which then had common borders with Poland) to France, where they again fought against the invading Germans; and in 1942 the newly formed Polish Second Corps evacuated from the Soviet Union, via Iran, to the Near East, subsequently fighting in campaigns there and in North Africa, Italy, and northwest Europe. Some Second Corps personnel transferred from the Near East into Polish Armed Services units in the UK.
At war's end, many of the Poles were transported to, and stayed in, camps in the United Kingdom. In order to ease their transition from a Polish-British military environment to British civilian life, a satisfactory means of demobilisation was sought by British authorities. This took the form of a Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC), as an integral corps of the British Army, into which the Poles who wished to stay in the UK could enlist for the transitional period of their demobilisation.
The PRC was formed in 1946 (Army Order 96 of 1946) and was disbanded after fulfilling its purpose in 1949 (Army Order 2 of 1950).
Polish Resettlement Act 1947
![Ognisko Polskie 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Ognisko_Polskie_1.JPG)
When the Second World War ended, a communist government was installed in Poland. Most Poles Western betrayal, felt betrayed by their wartime allies and declined to "return to Poland" either because their homeland had become a hostile foreign state or because of Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946), Soviet repressions of Poles, Soviet conduct during the Warsaw uprising, Warsaw uprising of 1944, the trial of the Sixteen, and executions of former members of the Armia Krajowa, Home Army. To accommodate Poles unable to return to their home country, Britain enacted the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, Polish Resettlement Act of 1947, Britain's first mass immigration law. Initially, a very large Polish community was centred around Swindon, where many military personnel had been stationed during the war.
After occupying Polish Resettlement Corps camps, many Poles settled in London and other conurbations, many of them recruited as European Volunteer Workers. Many others settled in the British Empire, forming large Polish Canadian and Polish Australian communities, or in the United States and Argentina.
Post-war dispersal and settlement
In the 1951 UK Census, some 162,339 residents had listed Poland as their birthplace, up from 44,642 in 1931.
Polish arrivals to the UK included survivors of German Concentration camp, concentration and POW camps and war wounded needing additional help adapting to civilian life. This help was provided by a range of charitable endeavours, some coordinated by Sue Ryder (1924–2000), a British humanitarian who, as Baroness Ryder of Warsaw, was later raised to the House of Lords and spoke there in the cause of Poland.
![EWS21](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/EWS21.13.jpg)
Another British woman, Dame Cicely Saunders, was inspired by three Displaced person, displaced Polish men to revolutionise palliative care and care of the dying. She met the first two, David Tasma—who had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto—and Antoni Michniewicz, as they were dying. The third Pole, :pl:Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, a painter and art critic, supported her work and became her husband in old age. Saunders is considered the founder of the hospice movement.
![Kościół sw](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Ko%C5%9Bci%C3%B3%C5%82_sw._Andrzeja_Boboli_5.JPG)
Britain's Polish immigrants tended to settle in areas near Polish churches and food outlets. In West London, they settled in Earl's Court, known in the 1950s as the "Polish Corridor", in reference to the interwar Central European political entity and, as house prices rose, they moved to Hammersmith, then Ealing, and in South London, to Lewisham and Balham. As these communities grew, even if many Poles had integrated with local British educational and religious institutions, the
Polish Catholic Mission
The Polish Catholic Mission, pl, Polska Misja Katolicka, (PMK) is a permanent Catholic chaplaincy for migrant Poles. It operates in a number of countries under the direction of the Polish Episcopal Conference.
England and Wales
History
The or ...
in England and Wales, in agreement with the English and Scottish hierarchies, considered that Polish priests should minister to Polish parishioners. The original Polish church in London in Devonia Road, Islington was bought in 1928 with much delay, following the First World War. However canonically, subsequent Polish "parishes" are actually branches of the Polish Catholic Mission and not parishes in the conventional sense and are accountable to the episcopate in Poland, through a vicar delegate, although each is located in a British Catholic diocese, to whom it owes the courtesy of being connected. The first post-war Polish "parish" in London was attached to Brompton Oratory in South Kensington, followed by a chapel in Willesden staffed by Polish Jesuits. Brockley-Lewisham was founded in 1951, followed by Clapham, while St Andrew Bobola Church, Hammersmith, St Andrew Bobola church in Shepherd's Bush (1962) was regarded as the "Polish garrison" church. Among its many commemorative plaques is one to a Clairvoyance, clairvoyant and healer housewife and Soviet deportee, Waleria Sikorzyna: she had had a detailed premonitory dream two years before the 1939 invasion of Poland, but was politely dismissed by the Polish military authorities. Currently the Polish Catholic Mission operates around 219 parishes and pastoral centres with 114 priests throughout England and Wales. In 2007 Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, primate of England, expressed concern "that Poles are creating a separate Church in Britain", but Polish rector, Mgr Kukla, responded that the Polish Catholic Mission continued to have a "good relationship" with the hierarchy in England and Wales and said that integration was a long process.
Cultural and educational ties with Poland
![IPMS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/IPMS.jpg)
The social make-up of successive waves of Polish migration to the UK is comparable to 19th- and early-20th-century Polish migrations to France. In both cases, the original mainly political migrants were drawn largely from elite and educated strata and reflected the heterogeneity of their class, and they quickly established cultural institutions such as libraries and learned societies. They included representatives of past Polish minorities such as Jews in Poland, Jews, Germans in Poland, Germans, Armenian diaspora, Armenians, Georgian emigration in Poland, Georgians, Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, Ruthenians, and people of Muslim Lipka Tatars, Tatar descent. In both cases, they were followed by waves of more socially-homogeneous economic migrants.
Since the Second World War, Poland has lost much of its earlier ethnic diversity, with the exception of Polska Roma, a distinct ethnolinguistic group and other Polish Romani people, Roma communities, and this has been reflected in recent Polish migrations to the UK. A recent study of comparative literature by Mieczysŀaw Dąbrowski, of Warsaw University, appears to bear this out.
A key military and latterly, news and cultural role was played by broadcasts in Polish, beamed to Poland, from London by the BBC Polish Section, BBC's Polish section. They began on 7 September 1939 with coded messages among prosaic material for the Polish Underground and after expansion into English learning, English by radio ended on 23 December 2005, a victim of budgetary cuts and new priorities.
Across the mainland UK, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the original Polish communities chiefly comprised former members of the Polish Resettlement Corps. They set up Polish clubs, cultural centres, and adult and youth organisations, e.g., the Polish Youth Group (''KSMP''). They contributed to, and in turn were supported by, veterans' welfare charities such as veterans' ''SPK'' (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów), airmen's and naval clubs. These organisations' original aims were to provide venues for socialising and exposure to Polish culture and heritage for children of former Polish Resettlement Corps members. Many of these groups remain active, and steps are being taken to cater to more recent Polish migrants.
The post-war phase saw a continuation of Polish intellectual and political life in microcosm in the UK, with the publication of newspapers and journals such as ''Dziennik Polski (United Kingdom), Dziennik Polski'' and ''Wiadomości'', the establishment of independent (of the Polish "regime") publishing houses such as "Veritas" and "Odnowa", with a worldwide reach, and professional theatrical productions under the auspices of a dramatic society, "Syrena". ''Orbis Books (London)'' was a bookseller, publishing house and for a time a record producer (under the label Polonia UK), founded in Edinburgh in 1944 by Kapt. Józef Olechnowicz, brought to New Oxford Street, London in 1946 and eventually bought by Jerzy Kulczycki in 1972. Poles in London played their part in the blossoming of modern art movements during the Swinging Sixties. Chief among them were two gallery owners, the painter, Halima Nałęcz, at the ''Drian Gallery'' in Bayswater and the pharmacist and philanthropist, Mateusz Grabowski with his ''Grabowski Gallery'' in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, London. Grabowski promoted Polish and other diaspora artists, such as Pauline Boty, Frank Bowling, Józef Czapski, Stanisław Frenkiel, Bridget Riley and Aubrey Williams.
Concern for the maintenance of Polish language and culture in the UK was entrusted to the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" – Polish Educational Society, a voluntary organization that operated a network of Saturday schools. Parishes also organized an active Polish scout movement (ZHP pgk). Polish religious orders founded boarding schools in England. In 1947 The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth started a school for girls, The Holy Family of Nazareth Convent School in Pitsford near Northampton. Displaced members of the Polish Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, Marian Fathers opened a first school for boys in Herefordshire. Then with financial help from the Polish diaspora, they acquired a vacant historic property on the river Thames outside Henley-on-Thames which became "Divine Mercy College" and a heritage museum at Fawley Court, Grade I listed buildings in Buckinghamshire, a Grade I listed building, which functioned as a college from 1953 to 1986 and as a museum and retreat and conference centre until about 2010, when it was sold off by the Polish order amid controversy. In the grounds of the property is a church building and Columbarium (1071) commissioned by Prince Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill, Radziwill in memory of his mother, Anna House of Lubomirski, Lubomirska. The prince was himself laid to rest there in 1976. It is Grade II listed by English Heritage.
![Posk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Posk.JPG)
As a result of the 1939 invasion of Poland, the entirety of Polish universities and academic research fell into disarray. Although very reduced tertiary teaching continued underground, many academics perished in Katyn massacre, Katyn and in Concentration camps or shared the fate of the civilian population. Those who were abroad at the outbreak of war or who managed to escape set about salvaging their heritage outside Poland. During the war several British universities hosted Polish academic departments to enable Polish students to complete their interrupted studies: thus Liverpool University, Liverpool offered veterinary science in Polish and Oxford University, Oxford hosted a Polish faculty of law, and Edinburgh University, Edinburgh had a Polish Medical Faculty, whose alumni fortuitously joined the roll out of the National Health Service in the UK. These arrangements came to an end in the late 1940s and to cater for many demobilized service personnel wishing to resume their studies or research, "PUNO" (Polski Uniwersytet na Obczyznie) – The Polish University Abroad was founded in 1949, offering humanities subjects in Polish. It exists to this day with a London base at the Polish Social and Cultural Centre in Hammersmith and has opened departments in other European countries.
During the Cold War, Poles assembled twice in the UK to mark historic national events. The first was in 1966 the Millennium of Poland's baptism as a Christian nation, when among other festivities, a Mass (liturgy), Mass was celebrated in London's White City Stadium, filled to its 45,000 capacity. The second gathering was during the visit by the Polish pontiff, Pope John Paul II's visit to the United Kingdom, Pope John Paul II, to the United Kingdom in 1982. While the Pope visited nine British cities and was welcomed by two million British Roman Catholics and others, a Mass specifically for 20,000 Polish faithful was held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace stadium in London on Sunday 30 May.
Symbolism of political governance
In December 1990, when Lech Wałęsa became the first non-Communist president of Poland since the war, the ceremonial insignia of the Polish Republic, including the original text of the Polish 1935 constitution were handed over to him in Warsaw by the last "President" of the London-based government-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski. This act symbolized the legitimate transfer of independent Poland's seals of office and put an end to the political opposition that, for half a century, had both dogged and been the bedrock of the Polish diaspora in the United Kingdom.
[Peter D. Stachura, Editor ''The Poles in Britain 1940–2000'', Frank Cass, 2004, , Paperback First Edition, p. 45.][Peter D. Stachura, Stachura, Peter D. Ed. ''The Poles in Britain 1940–2000'', Frank Cass, 2004, , Paperback First Edition, p. 8.] Arguably a majority of Polish people had fought hard to combat communism, and for their right to democratic liberties. While an increasingly frail and diminishing group upheld the existence of the "Zamek" – "Citadel" shorthand for the Polish National Council as the "virtual opposition" to the communist regime in Poland it held little sway with the Polish diaspora in the UK. Instead, London came to be seen as an important centre for fostering business and cultural relations with contemporary Poland.
Economic activity
For the duration of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain, Poles in the UK were engaged in a massive effort of helping economically their relatives and friends in Poland. Initially they sent food parcels and medicines as Poland recovered from the ravages of war then the assistance changed to money transfers, sometimes from their own meagre pensions, in the belief that they were still better off living in freedom. ''Tazab'' and ''Haskoba'' were the earliest UK-based parcel operations, while Mateusz Grabowski, Grabowski was a mail order pharmacy. When Poland raised import tariffs, they turned their focus in the mid 1950s to travel, like ''Fregata Travel'', the latter being a brand that had migrated to London from pre-war Lwow. With banking agreements with Poland in place, the travel companies acted as transfer bureaux via the Polish bank PKO Bank Polski, PKO.
The relaxation of travel restrictions to and from Poland after October 1956 saw a steady increase in Polish exchanges with the United Kingdom in the 1950s. In the 1960s a purge of communist party members and intellectuals of Jewish descent led to a further influx of Poles into the UK. Only with the accession of Edward Gierek in 1970 as First Secretary of the Polish Workers' Party (PZPR), who himself had spent time as a migrant in France and Belgium, did it become possible for Poles to leave their country with relative ease.
The ''Polish Trustee Association'', founded by the Ex-Combatants (SPK), handled legacies left by Polish Forced displacement, DPs for their kin in Poland.
Remembrance
![London MMB 68 Polish War Memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/London_MMB_68_Polish_War_Memorial.jpg)
Polish servicemen who died in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
or subsequently, found their final resting places mainly in six cemeteries across the United Kingdom: Newark-on-Trent, Blackpool, Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, Yatesbury in Wiltshire, Grangemouth in Scotland, and Wrexham in Wales. Then, as the first generation of émigrés settled in various urban areas, often clustered around Polish clubs and churches, their graves and memorials began to appear in nearby existing cemeteries. Thus in London and its environs there were Polish burials especially in Brompton Cemetery, Brompton (Central London), Gunnersbury Cemetery, Gunnersbury, Mortlake Cemetery, Mortlake, Norwood Cemetery, Norwood and Putney Vale Cemetery, Putney Vale cemeteries.
The Polish War Memorial, in a prominent position close to RAF Northolt West of London, commemorating the Polish airmen who fought for Great Britain, was erected in two stages. It was initially unveiled in 1948 with the names of 1,243 flyers. In time, a further 659 names were identified and were added during a refurbishment of the monument carried out in 1994-6 funded by a public appeal. It was ceremonially re-opened. In 2015 a memorial garden was added to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle. The monument is Grade II listed by English Heritage.
Franciszek Kornicki (1916–2017) is the last Polish fighter pilot to die. His funeral was held in November 2017.
![Pomnik katynski londyn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Pomnik_katynski_londyn.JPG)
By contrast, the wish of the British Polish community to honour its 28,000 fellow countrymen, many of them close relatives, who fell victim of the Katyn massacre with a memorial met with sustained obstruction from the British authorities. This, it appears, was owing to the effective diplomatic pressure exerted by the Soviet Union on Anglo-Soviet relations at the height of the Cold War. Despite public funds having been raised, the project was delayed for many years. A measure of ''détente'' in East-West relations in the mid 1970s, allowed a monument to be installed inside Gunnersbury Cemetery. There was no official British attendance at the unveiling in September 1976. Those British officials who came, did so in their private capacity.
There are now over a dozen Polish war memorials across the UK, including in the RAF church, St Clement Danes in the City of London and St Andrew Bobola Church, Hammersmith.
21st-century economic immigration
![Pierogarnia - Manningham Lane - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Pierogarnia_-_Manningham_Lane_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1652341.jpg)
During the twentieth century, world events meant that in Europe, London eclipsed Paris, France, Paris as the traditional destination of choice for Polish dissidents. The establishment of Polish communities across the UK after the Second World War along with supporting institutions cemented links between the UK-Polish community and relatives and friends in Poland. This encouraged a steady flow of migrants from Poland to the UK, which accelerated after the fall of Communism in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Poles used the eased travel restrictions to move to the UK and work, sometimes in the grey economy.
Poland joined the EU on 1 May 2004 and Poles, as EU citizens, gained the right to freedom of movement and establishment across the European Union. Most member states, though, had negotiated temporary restrictions to their labour markets, up to a maximum of seven years, for citizens from new member states. To the contrary, the UK (as Sweden too) granted immediate full access to its labour market to citizens from the new member states.
over entrants from these accession states,
Seven-year temporary restrictions on benefits that EU citizens including Poles could claim, covered by the Worker Registration Scheme, ended in 2011.
The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on applications to the Worker Registration Scheme. Figures published in August 2007 indicated that some 656,395 persons were accepted on to the scheme between 1 May 2004 and 30 June 2007, of whom 430,395 were Polish nationals. However, as the scheme is voluntary, offers no financial incentive and is not enforced; immigrants are free to choose whether or not to participate. They may work legally in the UK provided they have a Polish identity card or passport and a UK National Insurance number. This has led to some estimates of Polish nationals in the UK being much higher. Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes quarterly reports containing data on National Insurance number (NINo) allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK. The number of Polish nationals’ NINo registrations peaked between 2006 and 2008. In the financial year 2006/07 there were 220,430 Polish nationals receiving NINo registration (31% of all NINo registrations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK) and in 2007/2008- 210,660 (29% of all registrations to adult overseas nationals). The number of NINo registrations granted to Polish citizens has been in significant decline since 2016 referendum. In the year to June 2016 Polish born adults received 105 thousand NINo's, 18% less than in the year before a 13% share of all NINo registrations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK. The latest statistical data covering the year to the end of March 2020 shows a further decrease in Polish NINo registrations. During this period 38 thousand Polish citizens received NINos - 13% less than in the previous year and a significantly smaller share of all adult overseas registrations compared with previous years - 5%.
The Polish magazine ''Polityka'' launched a 'Stay With Us' scheme offering young academics a £5,000 bonus to encourage them to live and work at home in Poland. Additionally on 20 October 2007, a campaign was launched by the British Polish Chamber of Commerce called "Wracaj do Polski" ('Come Back to Poland') which encouraged Poles living and working in the UK to return home.
By the end of 2007, stronger economic growth in Poland than in the UK, falling unemployment and the rising strength of the Polish złoty had reduced the economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK. Poland was one of the few countries to not be badly affected by the Financial crisis of 2007-2008, 2008 economic downturn.
Labour shortages in Polish cities and in sectors such as construction, IT and financial services have also played a part in stemming the flow of Poles to the UK.
According to the August 2007 Accession Monitoring Report, fewer Poles migrated in the first half of 2007 than in the same period in 2006.
Demographics
Population size
The 2001 UK Census recorded 60,711 Polish-born UK residents;
60,680 of these resided in Great Britain (not including Northern Ireland), compared to 73,951 in 1991.
Following immigration after Poland's accession to the EU, the Office for National Statistics estimated 832,000 Polish-born residents in the UK in 2018, making Poles the largest overseas-born group, having outgrown the Indian-born population. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 UK Census recorded 579,121 Polish-born residing in England, 18,023 in Wales,
55,231 in Scotland,
and 19,658 in Northern Ireland.
Unofficial estimates have put the number of Poles living in the UK higher, at up to one million.
The Office for National Statistics estimates that the Polish-born population of the UK was 691,000 in 2020.
Geographic distribution
![Polish speakers in England and Wales](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Polish_speakers_in_England_and_Wales.svg)
According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 UK Census in England and Wales, there are 0.5 million residents whose main language is Polish; which amounts to 1% of the whole population aged three years and over. In London, there were 147,816 Polish speakers. The main concentration of Polish people in London is in Ealing, in West London (21,507; 6.4% of all usual residents). Elsewhere in the capital, the biggest Polish communities are in the outer Boroughs of: London Borough of Haringey, Haringey, London Borough of Brent, Brent, London Borough of Hounslow, Hounslow, Waltham Forest, London Borough of Barnet, Barnet. Outside London, the largest Polish communities are in: Birmingham, Southampton, Slough (8,341; 5.9%), Luton,
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
, Peterborough, Nottingham, Manchester, Leicester, Coventry and the Borough of Boston in Lincolnshire (2.975; 4.6%).
Scotland has seen a significant influx of Polish immigrants. Estimates of the number of Poles living in Scotland in 2007 ranged from 40,000 (General Register Office for Scotland) to 50,000 (the Polish Council). The 2011 UK Census recorded 11,651 people in Edinburgh born in Poland, which is 2.4% of the city's population – a higher proportion than anywhere else in Scotland apart from Aberdeen, where 2.7% were born in Poland.
In Northern Ireland, the number of people reporting in the 2011 census that they were born in Poland was 19,658,
[ and the number stating that they spoke Polish as a first language was 17,700. Despite a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) recruitment drive in November 2006 that attracted 968 applications from Poles, with language exams being held both in Northern Ireland and in ]Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
, , none had entered the PSNI's ranks. The first Polish national to join the PSNI started working in August 2010.
Employment and social activities
In London and various other major cities, Poles are employed across virtually all sectors from care work, construction, hospitality sector to education, NHS, banking and financial services. There is a significant group of people involved in the arts, in writing, journalism and photography. In rural areas of low-population density, such as East Anglia and the East Midlands; Polish workers tend to be employed in agriculture and light industry.
The Polish Social and Cultural Association in London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Hammersmith which houses a number of organisations, an exhibition space, a theatre and several restaurants, is a popular venue. The Federation of Poles in Great Britain (ZPWB) which was set up to promote the interests of Poles in Great Britain acts as an umbrella for more than seventy organisations throughout the UK. Both these institutions also aim to promote awareness of Polish history and Culture of Poland, culture among British people.
Since Poland's accession to the European Union in 2004, Polish delicatessens, with regular deliveries of fresh produce from Poland, are an increasingly familiar feature along British streets and foodstuffs from Poland are supplied to most of the supermarket chains. New publications in Polish have joined the pre-existing titles, including several free magazines carrying news and features and filled with advertising are booming. A local newspaper in Blackpool is one of a handful of British newspapers to have its own online edition in Polish called ''Witryna Polska''.
Social questions
Education
Many Poles who have migrated to the UK since the enlargement of the EU have brought children with them. The young families have created some pressure on schools and English-language support services. Despite language difficulties, research shows these pupils perform well in British schools, and the presence of Polish pupils in schools has appeared to improve the performance of other pupils in those schools. The Cameron-Clegg ministry, Coalition Government planned to abolish exams in Polish by 2018, among other languages, at GCSE and A-Level, on the grounds that they were no longer cost-effective due to "falling popularity"; but these plans were scrapped in the wake of protests in Parliament and a petition co-ordinated by the Polish Educational Society.
Integration and intermarriage
Polish newcomers to the United Kingdom follow previous patterns of ethnic integration, depending on where they can afford to live, on their educational and employment status, and on the presence of other ethnicities. In 2012 most of the 21,000 children born to Polish mothers had Polish fathers; the remainder had fathers of other backgrounds. In 2014 there were 16,656 children born with Polish mothers and fathers from European backgrounds (Other white and white British).[https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/.../livebirths/datasets/parentscountryofbirth/...xls ] Some 702 children were recorded as born to Polish mothers and fathers from African backgrounds, and 749 children born to Polish mothers and fathers from Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds.
Polonophobia in Britain
As noted, there was an increase in Polish workers in Britain in the early twenty-first century. There were incidents of resistance or ethnic discrimination. In 2007, Polish people living in Britain reported 42 "racially motivated violent attacks" against them, compared with 28 in 2004. On 11 July 2012, the Polish Association of Northern Ireland called for action after Polish flags were burned on Eleventh Night bonfires in several locations across Belfast.
On 26 July 2008, ''The Times'' published a comment piece by restaurant reviewer Giles Coren, who expressed negative sentiments towards Poles, in part due to his belief that Christian Poles had Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946, forced his Jewish ancestors to flee Poland because of anti-Semitic attacks on them after the Holocaust and the Second World War. Coren used the term "Polack" to refer to the Polish diaspora in Britain, arguing that "if England is not the land of milk and honey it appeared to them three or four years ago, then, frankly, they can clear off out of it".
The Far-right politics, far-right British National Party (BNP) have expressed anti-Polish sentiments in their political campaigns, and campaigned for a ban on all Polish migrant workers to Britain. The party used an image of a Second World War Supermarine Spitfire, Spitfire fighter plane, under the slogan "Battle for Britain", during the party's 2009 European Elections campaign. But the photograph was of a Spitfire belonging to the Polish No. 303 Squadron RAF, No.303 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. John Hemming (politician), John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Yardley, Birmingham, ridiculed the BNP for accidentally using an image of Polish aeroplanes in their campaign: "[t]hey have a policy to send Polish people back to Poland – yet they are fronting their latest campaign using this plane."
In January 2014, a Polish man, whose helmet was emblazoned with the flag of Poland, claimed he was attacked by a group of fifteen men outside a pub in Dagenham, London. The victim blamed speeches of then-Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron for causing the attack. During the same month in Belfast, there were seven attacks on Polish homes within ten days; stones and bricks were thrown at the windows.
Notable persons
The following persons are notable Poles who have lived in the United Kingdom, or notable Britons of Polish descent.
Science and technology
*Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz – Polish-British developmental biologist. Professor of Mammalian Development and Stem Cell Biology at Cambridge University.
*Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017) – sociologist
*Leszek Borysiewicz, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (born 1951) – physician, immunologist and scientific administrator, the 345th List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (in office since 2010).
*Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) – Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor. Presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, ''The Ascent of Man''
*Stefan Buczacki (born 1945) – botanist, horticulturalist, broadcaster and writer
*Maria Czaplicka (1884–1921) – cultural anthropologist who is best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism.
*Helen Czerski, (born 1978) – physicist and oceanographer
*Eva Frommer (1927–2004) – pioneering child psychiatrist
*Waclaw Korabiewicz (1903–1994) – physician, ethnographer, prolific writer and administrator
*Józef Kosacki (1909–1990) – inventor of the Polish mine detector, first used in Second Battle of El Alamein.
*Margaret Lowenfeld (1890–1973) – physician and pioneer of Play therapy[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – Margaret Lowenfeld]
Retrieved, 20 June 2009
*Bronisław Malinowski (1884–1942) – one of the most important 20th-century anthropologists
*Mark Miodownik (born 1969) – materials scientist, engineer and populariser of science
*Joseph Rotblat, Sir Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005) – physicist, participant in the Manhattan Project and Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Nobel Peace Prize 1995
*Tomasz Schafernaker – meteorologist and broadcaster
*Hanna Segal – Kleinian group, Kleinian Psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst
*Karol Sikora (born 1948) – oncologist
*Krystyna Skarbek (1908–1952) – Special Operations Executive, SOE agent
*Władysław Świątecki (inventor), Władysław Świątecki (1895–1944) – invented a Swiatecki bomb slip, bomb-release system, the most successful to be used in the Second World War.
*Paweł Strzelecki (1797–1873) – explorer and geologist who in 1845 also became a British subject.
*Zbigniew Szydlo, (born 1949) – chemist and specialist in Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam, alchemy
*Stefan Tyszkiewicz (1894–1976) – automotive pioneer, engineer and inventor
*Halszka Wasilewska (soldier), Halszka Wasilewska (1899–1961) – London-born military officer who developed women's army training in Interbellum Poland
*Helena Rosa Wright (1887–1982) – physician, missionary and pioneer of Contraception
*John Zarnecki (born 1949) - astronomer, past President of the Royal Astronomical Society
Written word
*Sebastian Baczkiewicz (born 1962) - playwright
*Janina Bauman (1926–2009) – journalist and writer
*Sophie Brzeska (1873–1925) – writer and muse of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
*Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
(1857–1924) – novelist
*Marian Hemar – songwriter, poet and comedy sketch writer
*Eva Hoffman (born 1945) – writer and psychotherapist
*Józef Jarzębowski (1897–1964) – educationalist, antiquarian and priest, founder of ''Divine Mercy College'', Fawley Court
*Michał Kalecki (1899-1970) - economist and mathematician, 1970 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, Nobel Prize nominee
*Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009) – philosopher and historian of ideas, senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, the first winner of the Kluge Prize, John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities
*Bernard Łubieński
Bernard Alojzy Łubieński, ( translit. Bernard Aloysius Lubienski) CSsR, (9 December 1846 – 10 September 1933) was a Polish Redemptorist priest, missionary and writer, closely associated with Bishop Robert Coffin and with the Roman C ...
(1846–1933) – English-educated Redemptorist
The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...
priest, archivist, preacher and missionary, (''venerable'' of the Catholic Church)
*Jozef Mackiewicz (1902–1985) – novelist, younger brother of Stanisław Mackiewicz
*Chris Maslanka (born 1954) – writer, broadcaster specialising in puzzles and problem-solving
*Juliusz Mieroszewski – publicist, translator of George Orwell/1984, Orwell's 1984 into Polish
*Zdzisław Najder (born 1930) – Conrad scholar
*Beata Obertyńska (1898–1980) – poet and writer
*Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (1891–1945) – poet and dramatist[ Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska: Biography and ''A Woman of Wonder''](_blank)
, University of Toronto.
*Zbigniew Pelczynski (1925-2021) – political scientist, fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, founder of School for Leaders in Poland
*Jerzy Pietrkiewicz, Jerzy Peterkiewicz (1916–2007) – writer and academic
*Adam Pragier (1886-1976) - jurist, author, Minister of Information Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
*Leon Radzinowicz, Sir Leon Radzinowicz (1906–1999) – academic and criminologist
*Jozef Retinger (1888–1960) – writer, founder of the European Movement UK, European Movement and of the Bilderberg Group, friend of Conrad, political adviser, spy
*W. S. Lach-Szyrma (1841–1915) – curate, historian, Science fiction writer and first to coin the word ''Martian''
*Bolesław Taborski (1927–2010) – veteran of Warsaw Uprising, poet, translator into English of John Paul II's dramatic works, literary critic, BBC Polish Section editor
*Adam Zamoyski (born 1949) – historian, ecology campaigner
Visual arts
*Iwona Blazwick (born 1955) – gallery director and art critic
*Andrzej Ciechanowiecki (1924–2015) – art historian, antiquary, Jermyn Street gallery owner and philanthropist
*Stanisław Frenkiel (1918-2001) - expressionist painter, art historian and academic teacher
*Henryk Gotlib (1890–1966) – painter
*Mateusz Grabowski (1904-1976) - pharmacist, owner of Grabowski Gallery, patron and philanthropist who fostered and donated art to public collections
*Waldemar Januszczak (born 1954) – architecture and art critic
*Stanislawa de Karlowska (1876–1952) – painter and member of the Camden Town Group
*Adam Kossowski (1905–1986) – painter
*Stefan Knapp (1921-1996) - painter, sculptor and multi-media artist
* Andrzej Krauze (born 1947) – cartoonist, illustrator, painter and poster designer
*Mieczysław Lubelski (1886–1965) – sculptor, ceramicist, designer, author of Polish War Memorial, RAF Northolt
*Stanisław Julian Ostroróg
Count Stanisław Julian Ostroróg (1836– 31 May 1890) was an exiled Polish nobleman and Crimean War veteran. He later became known as an early professional portrait photographer who created photogravures, under the professional name of '' ...
(1834–90) – ''Royal Warrant of Appointment (United Kingdom), Photographer to the Queen''. (He and his son, ''below'', were both known as ''Walery''.) Sitters included Victor Hugo and Queen Victoria.
*Stanisław Julian Ignacy Ostroróg (1863–1935) – son of the above, also a portrait photographer. Sitters included Oscar Wilde.
*Aniela Pawlikowska (1901-1980) - artist, book illustrator and society painter in Britain
*Jan Pieńkowski (born 1936) – children's book illustrator
*Janina Ramirez (born 1980) – art and cultural historian and TV presenter
*Jasia Reichardt (born 1933) - art curator, critic, gallery director and historian
*Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) - painter, film maker, book illustrator and stage designer
*Feliks Topolski (1907–1989) – draughtsman, cartoonist, illustrator and designer, Expressionism, expressionist painter
*George Zarnecki, Jerzy Zarnecki Order of the British Empire, CBE, British Academy, FBA, Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA(1915-2008) - Professor of the History of Art
*Marek Zulawski (1908–1985) – painter and art theorist
Music
*Irena Anders (aka ''Renata Bogdańska'') – singer, actress, Poland's "answer to Vera Lynn", and wife of General Anders
*Mark Brzezicki - drummer, longstanding member of Big Country
*Katy Carr – musician, songwriter and aviator
*Frédéric Chopin – virtuoso pianist and composer a year before his death, toured England and Scotland in 1848, inspired by his Scottish pupil, Jane Stirling
*Chris Dreja – guitarist with The Yardbirds
*Janick Gers – guitarist in Iron Maiden
*Ida Haendel (1928–2020) – virtuoso violinist awarded Commander of the British Empire, CBE
*Josef Hassid – violin prodigy who came to study in England
*J. J. Jeczalik – musician
*Paul Kletzki (1900–1973) – Polish-born international conductor associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
*Alfred Orda – operatic baritone
*Andrzej Panufnik – orchestral conductor and composer
*Roxanna Panufnik – composer daughter of Andrzej
*Marjan Rawicz – virtuoso pianist, half of the popular Piano duet, Piano duo, Rawicz and Landauer
*Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) – pianist and honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE
*Janek Schaefer – sound artist
*Halina Czerny-Stefańska – pianist, juror of the Leeds International Piano Competition, emerged as the real pianist of the EMI Dinu Lipatti recording mix-up
*Leopold Stokowski – orchestral conductor
*Maria Szymanowska
Maria Szymanowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born Marianna Agata Wołowska; Warsaw, 14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She tour ...
– virtuoso pianist and composer, gave concerts in England in 1818
*André Tchaikowsky (1935–1982) – pianist, composer. He left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company
*Chris Urbanowicz – guitar player in Editors
*Tracey Ullman – comedian, actor and singer
*Henryk Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski (; 10 July 183531 March 1880) was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer and pedagogue who is regarded amongst the greatest violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski were al ...
– violinist and composer played with the Beethoven Quartet Society in London
Performing arts
*Kathryn Apanowicz – actor
*Johannes Zukertort, Jan Herman Cukiertort (1842–1888) – chess grandmaster
*Daniela Denby-Ashe (born Pszkit) – actor
*Robert Donat – actor
*Anulka Dziubinska – actor, model
*Coky Giedroyc – director
*Mel Giedroyc – actor, comedian, one half of 'Mel and Sue'
*John Gielgud, Sir John Gielgud – actor, director
*Maina Gielgud – ballet dancer
*Val Gielgud – pioneer of radio drama
*Stefan Golaszewski – comedian
*Paul Heiney (born Wisniewski) – son of a Polish serviceman) journalist, TV personality and farmer
*Stanislas Idzikowski (1894-1977) – Ballet dancer, with Anna Pavlova and the Ballets Russes and esteemed ballet master
*Marek Kanievska – director
*Mark Kielesz-Levine - Television Journalist and Presenter
*Richard Kwietniowski – director, screenwriter
*Rula Lenska – actor
*Kasia Madera – newsreader
*Anna Ptaszynski – comedian, host of No Such Thing as a Fish education/comedy podcast
*Ida Schuster – actor
*Vladek Sheybal (1923–1992) – film and TV actor and director
*Peter Serafinowicz – comedian
*Michael Winner (1935–2013) – son of a Polish mother, film director, producer, food critic
Politics
*Tomasz Arciszewski – third Prime Minister of Polish government-in-exile and the last to have international recognition
*Adam Ciołkosz – with wife, Lidia, leading light of the Polish Socialist Party for several decades in Poland and in UK exile
*Daniel Kawczynski – Conservative Party (UK), Conservative MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham (UK Parliament constituency), Shrewsbury and Atcham, came to the UK in 1978
*Stanisław Mackiewicz (1896–1966) (older brother of Jozef Mackiewicz) – foremost political journalist who served as exiled Prime Minister (1955–56) before returning to Poland
*Stanislaw Mikolajczyk – second Prime Minister of Polish government-in-exile
*David Miliband – former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Foreign Secretary, whose mother was born in Poland
*Ed Miliband – former leader of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, whose mother was born in Poland[
*Rosena Allin-Khan (born 1977) – medical practitioner and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party MP for Tooting (UK Parliament constituency), Tooting in London
*]Walery Mroczkowski
Walery Karłowicz Mroczkowski (6 April 1840 – 1 October 1889) was a Polish insurgent in the 1863 January Uprising. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Prussian authorities. Upon release in 1865, he was sent into exile and travelled to Italy, ...
(1840–1889) – anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
follower of Mikhail Bakunin
*Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz ( , ; 6 February 1758 – 21 May 1841) was a Polish poet, playwright and statesman. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
Early life
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was born 6 February 1758 in Skoki, near ...
– political theorist, diplomat, prolific writer
*Leon Walerian Ostroróg (1867–1932) – international jurist, specialising in Islamic Law, delegate to Paris Peace Conference, 1919
*Józef Piłsudski
), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Warsaw, Poland
, constituency =
, party = None (formerly PPS)
, spouse =
, children = Wan ...
– statesman and marshal of Polish Armed Forces stayed in London as an independence activist early in his career
*Adam Pragier – leading socialist and political writer, Information minister in the Polish government-in-exile
*Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz – Polish Head of State-in-exile (President) 1939–1947
*Edward Bernard Raczyński – aristocrat, diplomat, writer, politician and President of Poland in exile (between 1979 and 1986)
*Jozef Retinger (1888-1960) – Chief political adviser to the Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
, co-founder of the Bilderberg Group and of the European Movement International, European Movement
*Jacek Rostowski – economist and politician who served as Ministry of Finance (Poland), Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
*Wladyslaw Sikorski – first Prime Minister of Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
who died in mysterious circumstances in an air crash off Gibraltar
*Radosław Sikorski (born 1963) – temporary UK citizen, Polish minister of Foreign Affairs
*Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski – physician, Divisional general and last Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Poland
*Edward Szczepanik (1915–2005) – economist and final prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile
*Walery Antoni Wróblewski (1836–1908) – politician, January Uprising commander and Paris Commune, Communard
*Wladyslaw Stanislaw Zamoyski, Władysław Zamoyski (1803–1868) – Czartoryski's diplomat in London and general in the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
*Szmul Zygielbojm – Jewish-Polish socialist politician, General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, Bund leader, and member of the National Council of the Polish Government in Exile. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allies in World War II, Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust.
Business
* Jack Cohen (1898–1979) – founder of Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
, was the son of Polish Jewish immigrants.
* Mateusz Bronisław Grabowski (1904–1976) – pharmacist from Wilno, who became a philanthropist to the arts and academic research
* Nicola Horlick (born 1960) – investment fund manager dubbed 'Superwoman', is half Polish.
* Henry Lowenfeld
Henry Lowenfeld in Polish, ''Henryk Loewenfeld'', (1 September 1859 - 4 November 1931) was a Polish-born British entrepreneur and theatrical impresario. He founded the Kops Brewery, the UK's first UK brewer of non-alcoholic beer, and built Lo ...
(1859–1931) – entrepreneur and theatrical impresario who introduced non-alcoholic beer to Fulham[Cathy Urwin, 'Lowenfeld, Margaret Frances Jane (1890–1973)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 4 Sept 2015
/ref>
* Michael Marks
Michael Marks ( yi, מיכאל מארקס Polish: ''Michał Marks''; 1859? – 31 December 1907) was a businessman and entrepreneur, who with Thomas Spencer co-founded the British retail chain Marks & Spencer.
Biography
Marks was born into a ...
(Michał Marks) (c. 1859–1907) – one of two co-founders of the retail chain, M&S, Marks & Spencer
* Peter Rachman (1919–1962) – notorious landlord whose malpractice gained an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary
* John J. Studzinski (born 1956) – American-British banker and philanthropist of Polish descent
Sport
*Paweł Abbott – former Poland national under-21 football team, Poland under-21 international footballer, born and raised in York
*Konrad Bartelski – Alpine ski racer
*Michael Bisping – mixed martial artist
*Matty Cash – Poland national football team, Poland international footballer
*Andy Drzewiecki – former weightlifter
*Carl Froch – professional boxer and two-time former WBC Super Middleweight Champion
*Lisa Dobriskey – British Middle distance track event, middle distance athlete
*Mickey Duff – Polish-born boxer and promoter
*Robert Grabarz – high-jumper
*Phil Jagielka – England national football team, England international footballer
*Andrew Johnson (footballer, born 1981), Andrew Johnson – former England international footballer
*Lukas Jutkiewicz – footballer
*Paul Konchesky – former England international footballer
*Craig Kopczak – rugby league player
*Dick Krzywicki – former Wales international footballer
*Anthony Malarczyk – former cyclist
*Eddie Niedzwiecki – former Wales international footballer
*Mikołaj Olędzki – England international rugby league player
*Anton Otulakowski – former footballer
*Kris Radlinski – former Wigan Warriors and Great Britain rugby league player
*Kevin Rutkiewicz – footballer
*Kevin Spiolek – former darts player
*Alex Szostak – rugby league player
*James Tarkowski – footballer
*Daniel Topolski – Oxford University rowing coach and TV pundit
*Wojciech Szczęsny – former goal-keeper for Arsenal F.C.
Scottish connection
*Catherine Czerkawska (born 1950) – poet, novelist, playwright
*Anna Dominiczak DBE FRCP FRSE FAHA FMedSci - professor of Medicine
*James Gimzewski – professor of chemistry, UCLA
*Janusz Jankowski – physician, scientist and academic administrator
*Christopher Kasparek – linguist and translator of Polish literature into English; to him is owed access to the remarkable Constitution of 3 May 1791, Polish 1791 Constitution
*Mark Lazarowicz – Labour Co-operative, Labour and Co-operative MP for Edinburgh North and Leith (UK Parliament constituency), Edinburgh North and Leith, whose father was Polish
*Gerald Lepkowski – actor, his father was Polish.
*Denis MacShane (''né'' Matyjaszek) – former Minister for Europe, whose father was Polish
*Stanisław Maczek (1892–1994) – tank commander, much-decorated lieutenant-general
*Marianna Palka – screenwriter
*Witold Rybczynski (born 1943) – Canadian architect
*Charles Edward Stuart – "Bonny Prince Charlie", Jacobite pretender to thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland (half-Polish great-grandson of Polish King John III Sobieski)
*Richard Wawro – landscape painter
See also
* Poland–United Kingdom relations
* Great Polish Map of Scotland
* Polish diaspora
* Scottish people#Poland, Scottish migration to Poland, 15th–18th centuries
* Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum
* ''World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West''
* Lithuanians in the United Kingdom
References
Further reading
* Keith Sword Collection: Polish Migration Project at University College London, UCL, http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/archives/swo.html
*''A Remarkable School in Exile 1941–1951'', Veritas Foundation Publication,
* S.Barnes, ''A Long Way From Home'', Staffordshire University 2003
*Brin Best & Maria Helena Zukowska, ''Poles in the UK: A Story of Friendship and Cooperation'', The British Polonia Foundation, 2016 [Free eBook PDF download fro
www.polesintheuk.net
*Kathy Burrell, ''Polish Migration to the UK in the 'New' European Union'', Ashgate 2009,
*Dr Diana M Henderson(Editor), ''The Lion and The Eagle'', Cualann Press .
*Robert Gretzyngier ''Poles in Defence of Britain'', Grub 2001,
*Michael Hope, ''The Abandoned Legion'', Veritas Foundation Publication .
*Michael Hope, ''Polish deportees in the Soviet Union'', Veritas Foundation Publication,
*W. Jedrzejewicz, ''Poland in the British Parliament 1939–1945'', White Eagle Printing
*G. Kay & R.Negus, ''Polish Exile Mail in Great Britain 1939–1949'', J. Barefoot,
*Ignacy Matuszewski, ''Did Britain Guarantee Poland's frontiers?'', Polish Bookshop
*Ignacy Matuszewski, ''Great Britain's Obligations Towards Poland'', National Committee of Americans, 1945
*Wiktor Moszczynski, ''Hello, I'm Your Polish Neighbour: All about Poles in West London'', AuthorHouse, 2010, ,
*Robert Ostrycharz,''Polish War Graves in Scotland A Testament to the Past'', .
*Prazmowska, Anita, ''Britain and Poland 1939–1943'', Cambridge University Press,
* Tim Smith & Michelle Winslow, ''Keeping the Faith The Polish Community in Britain'', Bradford Heritage,
*Peter Stachura (Editor), ''The Poles in Britain 1940–2000'', Frank Cass .
*R. Umiastowski, ''Poland, Russia and Great Britain 1941–1945'', Hollis & Carter 1946
*Ian Valentine, ''Station 43 Audley End House and SOE's Polish section'', Sutton 2004,
*Various, ''Intelligence co-operation between Poland and Great Britain during World War II'', Vallentine Mitchell 2005,
*Jonathan Walker, ''Poland Alone'', History Press 2008,
Memoirs and fiction
*Waydenfeld, Stefan. (1999) ''The Ice Road – An Epic Journey from Stalinist Labour Camps to Freedom''. London: Mainstream Publishing . Republished (2010) by Aquila Polonica, .
*Michał Giedroyć, ''Crater's Edge: A Family's Epic Journey Through Wartime Russia'', Bene Factum Publishing Ltd (1 May 2010)
*Matthew Kelly, ''Finding Poland'', Jonathan Cape Ltd (4 Mar 2010)
*Michael Moran, ''A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland'', Granta Books; Reprint edition (2 Mar 2009)
*Joanna Czechowska, ''The Black Madonna of Derby'', Silkmill Press 2008
*Andrew Tarnowski, ''The Last Mazurka: A Tale of War, Passion and Loss'', Aurum Press Ltd (9 May 2006)
*Kasimir Czerniak, Gabi Czerniak, William Czerniak-Jones, ''The Wisdom of Uncle Kasimir'', Bloomsbuy 2006
*Annette Kobak, ''Joe's War – My Father Decoded: A Daughter's Search for Her Father's War'', 2004
*Dr John Geller, ''Through Darkness To Dawn'', Veritas (1 Jan 1989)
*Denis Hills, ''Return to Poland'', The Bodley Head Ltd; First Edition (28 Jan 1988)
*Slavomir Rawicz, ''The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom'', Robinson Publishing (26 April 2007)
Academic papers
*Małgorzata Irek,
New Wave, Old Ways? Post-accession Migration from Poland Seen from the Perspective of the Social Sciences
', Studia Sociologica IV (2012), vol. 2, pp. 21–30
*Michał P. Garapich,
Between Cooperation and Hostility – Constructions of Ethnicity and Social Class among Polish Migrants in London
', Studia Sociologica IV (2012), vol. 2, pp. 31–45
* Małgorzata Krywult-Albańska,
Profil demograficzny polskich imigrantów poakcesyjnych w Wielkiej Brytanii
', Studia Sociologica IV (2012), vol. 2, pp. 72–80
External links
British Library Polish collections
British Polish Chamber of Commerce
Federation of Poles in Great Britain
Polish Heritage Society in the United Kingdom
Jagiellonian University Polish Research Centre in London
Polish Embassy in the UK, London
POSK Polish Social and Cultural Association
Information about researching Polish ancestry
issued by Suffolk County Council, updated September 2011
{{Use dmy dates, date=December 2017
British people of Polish descent,
Immigration to the United Kingdom by country of origin
Poland–United Kingdom relations
Polish communities, United Kingdom
Polish diaspora in the United Kingdom,
Polish minorities, United Kingdom