The Polish Air Force Memorial (informally Polish War Memorial) is a

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North London ...

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 b ...

in memory of airmen from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

who served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as part of the

Polish contribution to World War II In World War Two, the Polish armed forces were the fourth largest Allied forces in Europe, after those of the Soviet Union, United States, and Britain. Poles made substantial contributions to the Allied effort throughout the war, fighting on lan ...

. Over 18,000 men and women served in the Polish squadrons of the RAF during the war, and over 2,000 died. The memorial marks the southern extremity of

South Ruislip South Ruislip is an area of west London in the London Borough of Hillingdon, south-east of Ruislip, south of Eastcote, north-west of Northolt, and west of South Harrow. A 2017 estimation put the population of South Ruislip ward as 13,150 resident ...

in the

London Borough of Hillingdon The London Borough of Hillingdon () is the largest and westernmost borough in West London, England. It was formed from the districts of Hayes and Harlington, Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, and Yiewsley and West Drayton in the ceremonial county ...

, near

RAF Northolt ("Ready to carry or to fight") , pushpin_map = Greater London , pushpin_label = RAF Northolt , pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London , coordinates = , type = Royal Air Force station , code = , site_area = , height = , owners ...

, where seven Polish-manned fighter squadrons were based at different times in the war.

Junction and landmark status

The memorial is partly next to the lesser road interfacing roundabout above the sunken

A40 road A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

(specifically for the A4180 road) and is a local landmark. The term "Polish War Memorial" commonly extends to the arterial underpass and roundabout. The precise coordinates of the eagle finial are given, to six decimal places.

History

Officers from the

Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain The Polish Air Forces ( pl, Polskie Siły Powietrzne) was the name of the Polish Air Forces formed in France and the United Kingdom during World War II. The core of the Polish air units fighting alongside the Allies were experienced veterans of ...

who settled in Britain after the war formed the Polish Air Force Association. They decided to erect a monument and a committee, led by

Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

(later naturalised as Matthew Izycki de Notto), raised the necessary funds mostly from the British public, with a campaign in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' supported by

William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose DL (23 June 1879 – 15 June 1954) was a British peer and newspaper publisher. Life and career Berry was born in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, the second of three sons of Mary Ann (Rowe) and John Mathias Ber ...

, which raised over £8,000. The monument was designed by the Polish sculptor Mieczysław Lubelski, who had served in the 1944

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

and been interned in a German

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. He was given a budget of £3,000. The site at the edge of

was donated by

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the coun ...

, which took over and redeveloped the airfield for civilian use after the war. The main elements of the memorial are made from

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

and polished

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

with

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

lettering. A central Portland stone obelisk, with flanking Portland stone panels, stands beside a trapezoidal pool of water with fountains. The column is surmounted by a bronze

Polish eagle The coat of arms of Poland is a white, crowned eagle with a golden beak and talons, on a red background. In Poland, the coat of arms as a whole is referred to as ''godło'' both in official documents and colloquial speech, despite the fact that ...

, which is the symbol of the

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...

. Bronze lettering on the column gives the dates "1940-1945" and lists the Polish fighter and bomber squadrons that served with the RAF in the Second World War. The flanking panels have inscriptions in bronze lettering: to the front, in English and Polish: "TO THE MEMORY OF / FALLEN POLISH AIRMEN" and "POLEGLYM / LOTNIKOM POLSKIM", and across the rear, a biblical quotation from

2 Timothy 4 2 Timothy 4 is the fourth and final chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The letter is traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle, the last one written in Rome before his death (c. 64 or 67), ...

: "I HAVE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE FINISHED MY COURSE, / I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH/ - II TIM. IV. 7." The pool and column are surrounded by a

York stone Yorkstone or York stone is a variety of sandstone, specifically from quarries in Yorkshire that have been worked since the Middle Ages, middle ages. Yorkstone is a tight grained, Carboniferous sedimentary rock. The stone consists of quartz, m ...

walkway, with steps to a sunken semi-circular

exedra An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...

to the rear where the curved walls have further stone panels inscribed with the insignia of the 14 Polish squadrons that served with the RAF and the names of 1,243 Poles killed in the war (the inner wall with names was replaced, and the outer wall with more names and the insignia was added, in 1996). The site includes landscaped grass and flowerbeds, with poles for the flags of the UK and Poland, and is enclosed within cast iron railings and gates, supported by Portland stone pillars. The bronze eagle and lettering were cast by the

Morris Singer Morris Singer is a British art foundry, recognised as the oldest fine art foundry in the world. Its predecessor, Singer was established in 1848 in Frome, Somerset, by John Webb Singer, as the Frome Art Metal Works. The Singer Art Foundry was famou ...

foundry. The completed memorial was unveiled on 2 November 1948 by one

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS), who were ...

Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder, (11 July 1890 – 3 June 1967) was a senior Royal Air Force commander. He was a pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and he went o ...

, after a speech from a second,

Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, (21 May 1893 – 22 April 1971) was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as a bomber pilot in the First World War, and rose to become fi ...

: they were respectively the current and former Chief of the Air Staff. In his speech, Lord Portal said that it was a sad blow that many Polish veterans were unable to return home, as their country had been occupied by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. He added that it would be to the mutual advantage of Britons and Poles that the latter were to make their home in Britain. The unveiling was attended by

August Zaleski August Zaleski (13 September 1883 – 7 April 1972) was a Polish economist, freemason, politician, and diplomat. Twice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, he served as President of Poland- in-exile. Life and career A ...

, president of the Polish Republic in Exile, and further 3,000 dignitaries and guests. Prayers were led by the Polish Air Force Chaplain, Reverend Rafał Gogoliński-Elston.

Refurbishment and extension

Originally the names of 1,243 Polish airmen who died during the war were inscribed on the monument, all killed on active service. Subsequently, another 659 Poles were identified whose names should be on the monument. By the 1990s the monument needed refurbishment, so in 1994 an appeal was launched to fund the work. At the same time the opportunity was taken to extend the monument to add the 659 missing names, and adding 23 Polish airmen killed in the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

in 1940. Deteriorating sandstone panels which listed the names of the war dead were replaced with granite, and new dedicatory panels in English and Polish were added. In 1996 the work was completed and

the Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

rededicated the enlarged, refurbished monument.

Opening and upgrade ceremonies

The monument was unveiled in 1948. It became a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 2002 and was upgraded to Grade II* in September 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Presidential visits

Two

Presidents of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officiall ...

have laid a wreath the monument:

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...

in 1991 and

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule, he was active in the Socialist Union of Poli ...

in 2004. The monument was refurbished in 2010 in time for the 70th anniversary of 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 ...

. In September 2012 a replica of the Polish wartime standard, the

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

Standard, was paraded at the monument as part of a memorial ceremony.

Garden

On 5 September 2015, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the

, a Polish War Memorial Garden was opened behind the monument by the leader of Hillingdon Borough Council, Ray Puddifoot, and the Polish Ambassador to the United Kingdom,

Witold Sobków Witold Sobków (born 17 February 1961 in Warsaw) is a Polish scholar, public servant, diplomat, and former deputy foreign minister. Early life and education From 1979 he studied at the University of Warsaw, obtaining an MA in English Philology ...

. It includes a separate monument in both English and Polish.

Other Polish war memorials

Twenty other memorials to Polish

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

contributions exist in the UK – many near major war cemeteries – and some other cemeteries have more than one such memorial.

Gallery

File:Polish War Memorial 1.jpg, Some of the names at the rear of the monument File:Northolt, Polish War Memorial (2) - geograph.org.uk - 796780.jpg, Rear sunken walkway and curved memorial walls File:Polish War Memorial London.jpg, Memorial after 2010 refurbishment

References

Polish Air Force Memorial
War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museums
Polish Air Force Memorial
Hillingdon Council
Polish Air Force Memorial
War Memorials Online

External links

*
Polish War Memorial At Ruislip Online (Inc. many images)

Polish Air Force Memorial Committee

Polish Air Force Memorial Unveiling on 2nd November 1948
video on YouTube, the RAF Museum, Hendon {{coord, 51.548809, -0.400239, type:landmark, display=title 1948 establishments in England 1948 sculptures Sculptures of birds Bronze sculptures in England Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Hillingdon Grade II* listed monuments and memorials Granite sculptures in the United Kingdom Military memorials in London Polish military memorials and cemeteries Poland–United Kingdom relations Road junctions in London Stone sculptures in the United Kingdom Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Hillingdon World War II memorials in England