events, such as religious processions, 'akademie' with lots of rousing patriotic singing, sitting in the camp chapel on Sundays and Holy Days with the sound of Polish hymns and prayers, crying in my pushchair after a painful vaccination in the camp surgery, and particularly happy times when my mother took me to Fairford, and also to Lechlade- a popular spot with people in the camp- in the child seat on the back of her bicycle. Going on my tricycle was great, too.

WEDDINGS & CHRISTENINGS

Their religious faith kept spirits up during the bleakest of times for the emaciated survivors of my parents' and grandparents' generation. Roman Catholicism was, and for most Poles still is, intertwined with national identity; religious observance on Sundays, Holy Days, weddings christenings and funerals was an important part of their lives. Weddings and christenings, in particular, are shown in many families' photographs. The church of St Thomas of Canterbury in Fairford was where many marriages were celebrated, with receptions held in the camp. Father Leon Czapski was the  priest in the camp; he is shown in the left photograph of my parents' marriage at the church. When the camp finally closed Father Czapski  moved to a Polish parish in Crewe, he died there in 1986.

WORK

Workers were needed in the post-war period on local farms or at the American base nearby. There was also work further afield in Swindon, for instance, in Pressed Steel (later to become part of the Rover Group and then BMW), Garrards and Plessey, in this rapidly expanding town. Some people from the camp, like my mother, worked in light engineering in Swindon, where a bus took them early in the morning, around 7am and brought them back in the evening. Obtaining skilled or semi-skilled work in post-war Britain could be difficult for refugees as unions wanted to protect such jobs for English people. Some workers for jobs in the American bases were needed and also for the camp. My mother, pictured on the right with a colleague, worked for a while in the camp nursery.

I attended the nursery mentioned in Celina Wojciechowska's account of her time in the camp and for a short time, my mother, Sabina Marczewska (later Świątek), worked there.

During their time in Siberia, the Poles in the camp had survived on almost no food: half a hard loaf of dark bread each for the whole week was a typical amount they had lived on. As there were no animals to kill for meat nor fish to catch they had to resort to boiling grasses for sustenance and warmth. Berries, such as bilberries, were a lucky find for some when they were in season. Survival skills, and luck, were what had kept the survivors alive.

In the camp it was possible to grow vegetables to eat and flowers to make surroundings prettier. Seeds would often be exchanged between friends and families. Amongst other vegetables, they grew potatoes and cabbage, green beans and onions. Cabbage and potatoes were staples of the Polish diet, especially for the national dish, bigos, made of pickled as well as fresh cabbage, with or without Polish sausage or meat. Small cucumbers were grown for gherkins ('ogórki'), another favourite in the Polish diet. Flour and other ingredients were available from the village, too. Smalec- fat from meat, would be smeared on bread as a tasty snack (though now regarded as mightily unhealthy).

It was possible to buy meat in the village and eggs could be bought from local farmers. Ration books were in use in the post-war period for everyone in England- I still have mine from that time.

Cooking traditional food was another aspect of daily life. Many families had a 'szatkownica'- a wooden contraption with blades for cutting cabbage in bulk for making 'bigos'. The cabbage was often stored in wooden barrels. Some people also made their own Polish sausage. (When they moved to Swindon, many Poles obtained allotments to grow their own vegetables. Some people also kept chickens for eggs and meat. Their survival skills made them self-sufficient and independent in outlook.)

SKILLS

Post WWII, English people as well as Poles knew how to live economically and 'make do and mend'. My grandfather knew how to mend shoes; my mother had learnt how to sew and to make up patterns for skirts, dresses, suits, hats and coats. Somehow or other, she had managed to bring over to the camp and later to Swindon, her Singer treadle sewing machine from India, which together with the sewing skills she learnt there, saved the family a lot of money. The sewing machine is now a family heirloom

My mother also cut the family's hair, using hairdressing scissors and clippers which also enabled us to save money. My father was a painter and decorator who had trained in Poland before the war and was resourceful and creative enough to 'make something out of nothing', such as furniture from orange boxes on which he used paint effects to make the wood look like 'proper' furniture. By their resourcefulness and sticking together as a family they were able to survive financially and eventually to afford a deposit on a small terraced house in Swindon, which incidentally, was later demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park and we moved elsewhere in Swindon

NEW-FOUND PLEASURE & PASTTIMES

Though people often had radios, there was no television in those days so people would get together in each others' barracks and talk, laugh, play cards and so on. Christmas, New Year, weddings, christenings, names days and other celebrations gave opportunities for friendly get-togethers with food and drink, in spite of rationing. Father Christmas (Mikołaj) delivered presents to children, (with help from their parents!) too

Knitting, sewing clothes and making crocheted table mats were also useful traditional hobbies popular with many women. In the camps in India and Africa, women had had to find ways of amusing themselves as husbands and young men were away fighting in the war- needlework provided an answer. Patterns for embroidered hangings were swapped between friends and this hobby continued in the camp. I still treasure this hanging of strawberries in a basket which my mother made in the camp about 60 years ago.