Articles

Marysia Lachowicz picks out some notable Poles who lived in London, and the homes, landmarks and museums that commemorate their lives.

Right: One of several portraits of Joseph Conrad held at the National Portrait Gallery. This one is by Walter Tittle and was painted between 1923 - 24. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Second World War figures

Count Edward Raczynski (1891-1993)

8 Lennox Gardens, SW1

Count Raczynski was born in Zakopane into an aristocratic family. Pre-WW2 he became an Ambassador and diplomat for Poland across Europe. It was Raczynski who phoned Chartwell to inform Churchill that Germany had invaded Poland. He was a key member of the Polish Government in Exile and the last President of Poland (in exile) from 1974-86. On his 100th birthday he received an honorary knighthood from the Queen.

David Ben-Gurion (1886 –1973)

75 Warrington Crescent, W9

Born in Poland he arrived in Israel in 1906. He was involved in the creation of the first agricultural workers’ commune (evolved into the Kibbutz). He was deported at the outbreak of WW1 but fought in the Jewish Legion of the British Army. He was instrumental in the struggle to establish the State of Israel and in 1949 became its Prime Minister. He was involved in politics until his retirement in 1970 and is considered one of the key people to shape 20th century history.

Szmul ‘Artur’ Zygielbojm (1895-1943)

Porchester Road, W2

‘Artur’ was a Polish Jew and socialist. He had a harsh and poor upbringing and became involved in communal activities. In Warsaw at the outbreak of WW2 he argued against the Jews vountarily entering a ghetto as the Germans requested. He had to flee the country but relentlessly strove to tell the world of the real situation for Jews in Europe. He became the representative of the Polish Jewry in the National Council of the Polish Government in Exile. In May 1943 following the collapse of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and news of the death of his wife and son, he committed suicide in protest at the indifference of the world in allowing the Nazis extermination of the Jewish people. A group of Jewish socialists arranged for his statue to be put up in the Porchester Road. His story appears in the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum

General Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881-1943)

His monument was erected Portland Place, W1, erected in 2000

Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile and Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed forces 1939-43.

The Sikorski Museum preserves many of the relics of the Poles who remained in Britain after the Second World War.

There's also a Polish War Memorial on the fringes of London.

Count Edward Raczynski's seat of power photographed in 2005 by John Rogers. Courtesy of Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Virtual Museum.

Writers, artists and musicians

The British Library

The Slavonic and Eastern European collections of the British Library holds over 20,000 texts by Polish authors including famous authors such as Copernicus. Spread throughout the main collections, a dedicated librarian is on hand to help researchers.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) (b. Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski)

17 Gillingham Street SW1

Although best remembered as a Polish born (naturalised) British novelist, Conrad served for many years in the French and British merchant navies. His experiences of other worlds and cultures during these years inspired much of his writing. In 1896, he married an Englishwoman (Jessie George) and spent most of the remainder of his life in Kent. He is buried in Canterbury.

The National Portrait Gallery holds a number of paintings, photographs and a bronze bust.  Details of his life at as a merchant seaman and writings can be found on the Port Cities site, and the British Library holds manuscripts and photographs.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Polish composer and pianist known as ‘the poet of the piano’. A child prodigy, he completed his studies in Warsaw before travelling to Europe. He was in Vienna when the Russian Polish war of 1830 began. On Poland’s defeat many intellectuals and artists fled Poland for Paris where Chopin joined them. Although he travelled in Europe he died of tuberculosis aged 39 in Paris having spent most of his life as a political refuge unable to return to Poland. He is buried in Cimetière du Père Lachaise but, according to his wishes, his sister Ludwika took Chopin's heart to Poland, where it was placed inside a pillar of the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.

There are various houses across London that are linked to Chopin, including 99 Eaton Place where he gave his first public performance on 23 June 1848. He stayed at 4 St James’s Place, SW1 in October 1848, close to the end of his life. On 16 Nov 1848 he went to the City of London Guildhall to give his last puclic performance, a concert in aid of Polish refugees. It was cut short due to illness. On 23 Nov 1848 he left for Paris. He suffered a seizure as the train left London and died in Paris on 17 Oct 1849. 

Henryk Gotlib (1890-1966)

Henryk Gotlib studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Cracow and later in Vienna, Munich and Paris. He became a leading member of the 'Formist' movement. In the 1920s he exhibited in Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. In the 1930s he established himself as an influential writer and teacher in Poland.

He moved to London on the outbreak of the Second World War where he stayed until his death in 1966. While in England he exhibited with The London Group of artists, founded in 1913.

The Arts Council acquired the painting The Boat in 1961 and his painting Rembrandt in Heaven is in the Tate Gallery Collection.

… and a Villain

Peter Rachman

Peter Rachman’s legacy is an altogether less glorious one. Coming to Britain as a Polish refugee he became famous as an exploitative landlord, with a group of hired heavies to enforce his tightly packed living conditions in the Kensington area. Many of the people renting from him were Caribbeans who struggled to find places to live when they first came to the UK. His slum tenements have now mostly been cleared, but his name is still a byword for harsh living conditions.