| Polish Air Force Memorial | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
 | |
 | |
| For casualties of the Polish Air Force in the Second World War | |
| Unveiled | 1948 |
| Location | |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Polish Air Force Memorial |
| Designated | 30 August 2002 (Grade II) 8 September 2020 (Grade II*) |
| Reference no. | 1088113 |
ThePolish Air Force Memorial[1] (informallyPolish War Memorial)[2][3] is awar memorial inWest London,England in memory of airmen fromPoland who served in theRoyal Air Force as part of thePolish contribution to World War II. 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 ofSouth Ruislip in theLondon Borough of Hillingdon, nearRAF Northolt, where seven Polish-manned fighter squadrons were based at different times in the war.
The memorial is partly next to the lesser road interfacing roundabout above thesunkenA40 road (specifically for the A4180 road) and is a local landmark.[4] 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.
Officers from thePolish Air Forces in France and Great Britain whosettled in Britain after the war formed thePolish Air Force Association. They decided to erect a monument and a committee, led byAir Vice MarshalMateusz Iżycki [pl] (later naturalised as Matthew Izycki de Notto), raised the necessary funds mostly from the British public, with a campaign inThe Daily Telegraph supported byWilliam Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose, which raised over £8,000.
The monument was designed by the celebrated Polishmonumental sculptorMieczysław Lubelski, who had served in the 1944Warsaw Uprising and been interned in a Germanconcentration camp. He was given a budget of £3,000. The site at the edge ofRAF Northolt was donated byMiddlesex County Council, which took over and redeveloped the airfield for civilian use after the war.
The main elements of the memorial are made fromPortland stone and polishedgranite withbronze 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 bronzePolish eagle, which is the symbol of thePolish Air Force. 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 "POLEGŁYM / LOTNIKOM POLSKIM", and across the rear, a biblical quotation from2 Timothy 4: "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 aYork stone walkway, with steps to a sunken semi-circularexedra 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).[5] 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 theMorris Singer foundry.
The completed memorial was unveiled on 2 November 1948 by oneMarshal of the Royal Air Force,Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder, after a speech from a second,Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford: they were respectively the current and formerChief 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 theSoviet Union. He added that it would be to the mutual advantage of Britons and Poles that the latter were to make their home in Britain.[4] The unveiling was attended byAugust Zaleski, president of thePolish Republic in Exile, and further 3,000 dignitaries and guests. Prayers were led by the Polish Air Force Chaplain, ReverendRafał Gogoliński-Elston.
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 theBattle of France 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 andthe Duke of Gloucester rededicated the enlarged, refurbished monument.[4]
The monument was unveiled in 1948. It became aGrade II listed building in 2002 and was upgraded to Grade II* in September 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.[6]
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ThreePresidents of Poland have laid a wreath at the monument:Lech Wałęsa in 1991,Aleksander Kwaśniewski in 2004 andAndrzej Duda in 2015.[7][8]The monument was refurbished in 2010 in time for the 70th anniversary of theBattle of Britain. In September 2012 a replica of the Polish wartime standard, theWilno Standard, was paraded at the monument as part of a memorial ceremony.[9] In 2016, thePrime Minister of Poland,Beata Szydło, laid a wreath at the monument, accompanied by her British counterpartTheresa May.
On 5 September 2015, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of theBattle of Britain, a Polish War Memorial Garden was opened behind the monument by the leader ofHillingdon Borough Council, Ray Puddifoot, and thePolish Ambassador to the United Kingdom,Witold Sobków. It includes a separate plaque in both English and Polish.[10]
Twenty-one other memorials to PolishWorld War II contributions exist in theUK – many near major war cemeteries – and some other cemeteries have more than one such memorial.
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51°32′56″N0°24′01″W / 51.548809°N 0.400239°W /51.548809; -0.400239
