The creation of a Polish Merchant Navy College was first mooted in 1942 but it wasn't until March 1945 that the necessary resources were found for the college to be established, under the direction of Cpt. K.O. Borchardt, in a disused camp in Landywood nr. Walsall in Staffordshire.  The camp consisted of the usual assortment of nissen huts which served as classrooms and bedrooms for the boys.  There was a communal kitchen and dining room, doctor's surgery, chapel, workshops and staff accommodation.  The college, as remote from the sea as could be in the U.K., laboured under many disadvantages not the least of which was that the British merchant navy did not recognize its nautical training or qualifications.  In 1947 The Committee for the Education of Poles, under the chairmanship of Sir George Gater, assumed responsibility for the college and took the view that it should be merged with the Lilford Technical School.  The merger was completed by March 1948 and two special classes, in navigation and engineering, were formed for 45 advanced students from Landywood.  The committee also managed to arrange navigational practice for most of the trainees.  These two classes, which were independent of Lilford’s technical curriculum, disappeared in 1949 when the students completed their course

Of all the Polish schools in the U.K. Lilford was by far the most interesting.  The product of a merger between Landywood Merchant Navy College (December 1947) and Burma Camp Engineering School near Llywyngwril Merionethshire (March 1948) Lilford became a mixed ability Technical School catering for boys in the age range of 13 to 17.  Initially it provided two courses, one of 3 and the other of 4 years, both of which were designed to train boys for the mechanical engineering industry while at the same time providing them with a broad general education.  By the start of the school year 1950/51 the two courses were merged onto a single syllabus delivered through five ability streams catering for varying skills and levels of achievement.  Younger boys would be scheduled to complete the course within four years and be expected to achieve a high academic standard, while older boys would concentrate on workshop practice that would prepare them for entry into the world of work.  This varying emphasis, within a single syllabus, can be seen in the amount of time spent in the workshops.  Boys following the, more academic, 4 year course spent a total of 1,587 hours in the workshops while boys on the, more vocational, 3 year course spent 2,160 hours in the workshops.  It was recognised early on that pressure from boys to acquire practical skills which would provide them with well paid jobs in industry might lead to unacceptable levels of achievement in the humanities. Indeed masters, responsible for delivering subjects of general education, struggled to capture the boys’ interest.  To support them, the former principal of Haydon Park Grammar School, who had already demonstrated high intellectual and administrative gifts, was appointed as headmaster in February 1951.  Under his direction the school, now consisting of well over 400 boys, flourished with its standards of general education considerably enhanced and without detriment to the standard of practical work.

By 1953 most Polish children had acquired sufficient English to enter directly into the British education system so, in September 1953, all remaining Polish secondary school pupils, both boys and girls, were formed into one school at Lilford.

Lilford School attracted the attention of both the local population, which eagerly attended open days and was greatly impressed by exhibited examples of the pupils’ work, as well as educationalists who wrote highly complementary articles in various educational journals.  The directors of an important local engineering company were sufficiently impressed by the boys’ work to subcontract the manufacture of parts to the school, on normal commercial terms, so giving the course an important quality of reality.

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