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I lived in the Ludford
Magna camp in Lincolnshire until the age of six and then my family moved
to Husband Bosworth. I was ten when we left the camp and
although I have photos from both camps, Husband Bosworth is the
camp I remember most. The photos on
your Husband Bosworth camp site brought back a lot of wonderful memories
for me, especially as I recognised many of the people such as Eddy Merkis,
Ela Kubis, as well as the Rafal and Boc families who were our neighbours. |
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| My father, mother and me. Ludford Magna |
My dad and I in Ludford Magna |
My father Gustaw,
mother Teresa, me and our Italian friend Tosca Witosz in
Husband Bosworth camp. |
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My father, Gustaw
Gryzowski, was born in Lwów in Eastern Poland. When war broke out he
joined the army and fought in many battles, including
the battle of Monte Cassino in Italy where he lost so many of his friends.
He met my mother who was Italian in Faenza towards the end of the war.
They married and came to England. I remember my mother telling me that
as my father was still in the Polish Army, the wives of Polish service men
travelled to the UK two weeks before the men. She arrived somewhere in
Berwick, Northumberland, where it was so cold after leaving sunny Italy
that it was quite a shock for her. |
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Nursery school walk at Ludford Magna – I am the 3rd child
from the front Tadizo Witos |
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Nursery in Husband
Bosworth |
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Janina Manuala and
Paola Tielianiec, their mother was Italian and life
long friends of my family.oOther names are Ryszard
Piotrowski, and Franek Bochniak, |
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In Husband Bosworth
camp there were four Italian ladies who remained friends
for life and so did their children, that is my generation.
The ladies were, my mother Teresa Gryzowska, Vittorina Tietianiec (now living in Leicester),
Irene Bochniak (Rugby) and Tosca Witosz (Sydney Australia)
. All these ladies had learnt Polish in the camps and some of the
husbands had learnt Italian during the war in Italy. As my father
always insisted on us speaking the two languages at home it was
often a mixture of both. When I was five a bus would come to the
camp each morning to collect all the children of school age and
take us to Welford the nearest school where we learnt English. On
Saturday mornings we had to attend Polish school, there we
learned to read and write in Polish, we also had Polish
history lessons and religious instruction. Life in the camps was a
happy time for us children we often played in the woods and the girls loved to collect
flowers such as bluebells. My mother was a dressmaker so
was always busy sewing clothes for me and my brother Robert. |
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My godmother Ermelinda Dziegielewska with her daughter
Jadwiga sitting on her lap. I do not know the other lady. |
My Mother and friends in Ludford Magna
My mother is the lady with the long hair far right and in a
dark costume – I am the child standing beside her with my
head bent down. I vaguely remember the water-tank
in the background and think there was a wash-house nearby. We lived in
a barrack just opposite the wash-house I think. |
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Kazimierz Dziegielewski
playing the accordion at the Ludford Magna camp with a
friend at the piano.
Kazimierz
was a sergeant in the 2nd Armoured Regiment
Polish Forces and married my godmother in 1946 in Italy. From the document I have, he came from Obrytki,
Przyt³y,
£om¿a, Warszawa |
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I especially remember
participating in the Corpus Christi processions
as a child and leaving a trail of flower petals along the roads as
we followed the priest, I also remember the
smells of the wonderful cakes that some families cooked
such as Bu³ka and P¹czki. A neighbour of ours Pani Salwarowska
had a garden where she grew poppies for baking "Makownik",
a kind of Polish poppy seed cake in fact every garden had poppies
and I remember on one occasion panic in the camp as
policemen came to check and enquire what the poppy seeds were used
for, but it all ended well. |
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Children and parents taking part in Corpus Christi
Procession early 1950s |
My father Gustaw Gryzowski and I outside the church in
Ludford Magna – must be on the occasion of Bo¿e Cia³o?
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Easter time was fun, I
remember
neighbours such as Pani Ga³êzewska, who had two daughters of my age,
hiding painted boiled eggs and some chocolate ones in the grass
around her barrack and telling us that a
“Króliczek” (rabbit) had hidden them for us to find. I also remember that twice a year there
used to be a local fox hunt. For us children it was quite a show
watching all the aristocrats passing by on their beautiful horses
and attire something out of this world for us at the time. |
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Although I have fond
memories of Husband Bosworth, life for our parents specially
the Italian wives was difficult and not every thing
was good , I have a vague recollection
that there was a murder
in the camp, something to do with a jealous husband who killed his
wife, I think it happened on the site where the
“kwatermistrz” the camps commandant lived. |
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My first Holy Communion in Husband
Bosworth. |
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Front Row:- Gra¿yna
?, Wiktoria Ja³owiecka (Lola), Jadzia Salwarowska. Back
Row:-Me Lydia Gryzowska my mother is standing behind
me, Basia Ga³êzewska and Terenia Surniak. |
Celebrity
breakfast after our first Holy Communion with priest Fr. Franciszek Dziduszko, I am the third little
girl. |
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My friend Jadzia
Sa³warowska and me, we played a lot together and our
barracks were close to each other. Over the years we've lost
touch. |
Family
and friends in our nissen hut in Husband Bosworth. The
occasion, my brother Robert's christening. The man with a
moustache is Mr. Lipinski with his wife Wiktoria (I think).
Next to her is her son Stanislaw Bochniak (known as Stasio
) with his wife Irena (another Italian friend in the camp
and life long friends). Next Mr. Motyl my mum stretching her
neck and next to her is Tosca Witosz and my father Gustaw in the forefront. |
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When the camp closed many people, like my family
moved to Rugby were
we continued with our Polish
traditions throughout my adolescent years. |
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In fact for children of my
generation it was more difficult for us when we moved to the towns
as all of a sudden there were “Taboos” whereby in the camp we
didn’t have them. We were free to play outside as there was no
danger – everybody knew each other and watched over other people’s
kids – like an extended family really. Polish families did not
appreciate the English way of educating children and considered
them far too liberal. Therefore, many of us found that we had no
problems going to the Polish club as someone would always offer to
bring us back home but trying to go to an English event was
another story…. It took our parents some time to get accustomed to
this new way of life. |
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I left Rugby in 1970 to get
married in Italy, then my husband and I went to Geneva , Switzerland,
where we have been living ever since – we have 2 grown up children.
Throughout all these years we regularly visited Rugby to see my family and
old friends and sometimes went to visit the Polish camp for a Nostalgic
Tour….. On one of my trips another old friend gave me a photocopy of the
layout of the camp which I still have today. |
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