As the numbers of Polish servicemen and their families increased across Britain, the University of St Andrews became one of a handful of universities that accepted Polish Army students for further education across the humanities and sciences. The Dean of the Faculty offered space for student soldiers to continue their studies at the university. Close to 100 Polish soldiers were selected for continued study across a variety of subjects, as noted in this memo from 1941:
Soldiers integrated into student life and the local community. In one of the photographs below you can see two Polish soldier students, in borrowed caps and gowns, consulting their books at St Andrews. The other image depicts Polish army students taking an Economics lesson in a lecture room.
The University community was expanded not just by new students but also by additional lecturers: some members of the Polish army and air force had been university lecturers in Poland before the war, and they enjoyed getting back into the classroom occasionally during their time in St Andrews. This was true across the river in Tayside as well. As Professor A.D. Peacock (Department of Natural History, University College Dundee) noted in his memoirs, some Polish troops and their captain one day appeared in his department: ‘They had escaped Poland across the Tatra mountains (“the green frontier”), been marshalled as an army in France and later evacuated to Britain following upon the German advance in Flanders.’ The captain spoke sufficient English to communicate and explained that he had been a lecturer in geography in Poland; he wanted to borrow a lantern to show slides to his soldiers about geology in Scotland. (Extracts of Prof. Peacock’s memoirs are held in the University of St Andrews’ collections.)
‘The eager use made of these opportunities [libraries and classrooms] and the astonishing zeal of these young men made a profound impression on all who were brought into close contact with them…’
Address by the Principal, Professor Sir James C. Irvine, at the graduation ceremony on 25th June 1943 (University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums)
It was not all work and no play. As the images below show (from Anna Frąckiewicz’s book, Polish Students at the University of St. Andrews: Life and Times of Graduates, 1941-1950, 1994), there was also time for socialising, particularly on St Andrews’ beautiful beaches. A handful of women were admitted to the university alongside men, including the three women featured in these images, who all matriculated around 1941. Anna Gerstman is the author herself (Frąckiewicz was her married name), and she recounts her time as a student at St Andrews in this wonderful interview for Polish Scottish Heritage.
Eventually, an Association of Polish Students in St. Andrews was formed, with W. Rzucidło as chairman and T. Ślebarski as secretary. Of the 90 or so Poles who graduated with a full degree at the end of their time, it is thought that around a quarter returned to Poland. Frąckiewicz notes that others emigrated, mostly to the USA and Canada, but also to South Africa and New Zealand; the rest remained in the UK. Many of these ex-soliders and St Andrews graduates went on to chair or serve as secretaries to Polish societies: for instance, Władysław Chlebowski B.L. (1944), who became the personal secretary of Professor Folkierski, Head of the Polish Ministry of Education in London, and later secretary at the Agricultural College for Poles in Glasgow (1946-49).
The range of biographies that Anna Frąckiewicz outlines in her book help us picture not only the diversity of Polish students who ended up studying in St Andrews and Dundee but also the range of contributions they went onto make to British life. Here is a small sample:
- Jadwiga Mickiewicz: became a renowned gynecologist and surgeon at Lewisham Hospital (studied at Dundee).
- Zygmunt Edward Sadowski (MA 1944), studied German and later taught at Kirkcaldy High School (German language). According to Frąckiewicz (1994, 48), he was ‘Happily settled in Fife. Two of his children are graduates of the University of St Andrews and one of the Dundee College of Education.’ He was called on by prime minister Harold MacMillan and ‘volunteered to go to Africa and assist in raising the educational standards in some developing countries’. He became Headmaster of St John’s School in Portobello, Edinburgh; and he later worked at St Thomas of Acquinas Secondary School.
- Tadeusz Bolesław Ślebarski (MA 1945; postgrad Hons. 1947; Astronomer, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1951): Senior Lecturer at St Andrews from 1966 to 1979 (retired). Lived in St Andrews, kept in touch with several colleagues.
- Kazimierz Wimbor: captured by the Red Army, deported to labour camps in Siberia. Taught in Scotland and the Borders, later lecturer at Aberdeen, became Head of Department of Modern Studies.
- Stanisław Leon Kryński: scholar (taught at St Andrews 1944-45, then in Poland); translator of poetry; taught British Culture in Poland.
How does this integration of Polish soldiers into universities and small towns in the UK bring a different viewpoint to the image of a displaced person in war? What elements of community or home can a university provide, especially one that is internationally oriented? What can education do to counter some of the challenges of forced displacement? And what can universities and the towns they are situated in gain from providing tuition and opportunities for inclusion to refugees and migrants?