Couple born in refugee camp want to create roll of honour

A COUPLE who were born in a Polish refugee camp in Checkendon want to create a “roll of honour” to memorialise the site ahead of its 80th anniversary.

Zbigniew and Barbara Karpowicz, both 70, recently revisited the camps where they were both born to Polish refugees in the Fifties and lived in metal Nissen huts.

Both attended a nursery school at the camp, which was led by Polish teachers.

The couple were joined on their visit by Graham Drucker, an old friend of Mr Karpowicz who specialises in family histories.

Over the past year, Mr Drucker has worked to uncover the history of the camps, which he said have been “all but forgotten” from historical records.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the opening of the camps in 2028, Mr Drucker wants to help Mr and Mrs Karpowicz compile a list naming all of the Polish families who lived there.

Mr Drucker said: “There is no monument or anything at the camp so we wanted to create a roll of honour of Polish families at Checkendon and Nettlebed.

“We have almost 300 families and more than 1,200 names. The roll will be deposited with the local parish councils, libraries and museums.

“A few weeks ago we started to explore if a permanent plaque or monument could be installed at Checkendon or nearby and perhaps install it either in 2026, on the 80th anniversary of when the Polish soldiers arrived, or in 2028, [80 years after] the refugee camp opened.

“Now we are exploring and trying to find families of Polish descendants from Checkendon, to ensure we don’t forget any names and to explore their interest in an 80th anniversary reunion.”

Mr Drucker will also contact the Polish government and local parishes to see if they would want to participate in a commemoration of the camps.

He said he had communicated with British Polish heritage communities and had searched records in at Sacred Heart Church in Henley, where many Polish couples were married or baptised.

Mr Drucker said: “We would love to hear from anyone with any recollections or link to Checkendon or nearby Nettlebed camp.

“There are very few Polish army veterans left alive who served with the British Army and who were originally at Checkendon still living in the area. Stoke Row Parish Council kindly put us in touch with 98-year-old Ches Black, who is very interested that the Polish heritage isn’t forgotten.

“Nearby to him live another Polish descent family, Lisa Hryczanek and her mother Nina, as well as Irenke Motyka, of Sonning Common, whose family left Checkendon in 1955 when she was five years old.

“We have also been in touch with ex-Checkendon families in the USA, Paris, Yorkshire and more closely at Bicester.”

Through records held at the National Archives in Kew and at the Oxfordshire History Centre, Mr Drucker said he found details about the various uses of the camps.

Initially built as military bases in the First and Second World Wars, the camps were repurposed in 1946 as housing for Polish troops who couldn’t return to their country, which was then under the control of the Soviet Union.

The camp was one of several scattered throughout the woods and common land at Checkendon as well as settlements in Kingwood Common and Nettlebed.

Many of the 228,000 Polish troops in the British Army were displaced after the war and offered resettlement under the Polish Resettlement Act. These families were housed in Nissen huts in these former military camps.

Invented by Major Peter Nissen, these were semi-cylindrical and made from corrugated steel so were easy and cheap to build. They were used extensively around the area during the war.

Most of the buildings have been dismantled or become derelict but some still survive. Both Mr and Mrs Karpowicz’s parents met at Checkendon camp after being resettled there after the war. Their mothers had arrived after being released from labour camps in Siberia and their fathers had helped the Allies fight Nazi Germany.

Despite growing up in the same camp, Mr and Mrs Karpowicz have no memory of each other. They were introduced by a mutual friend on a blind date in Reading in 1976 and were married in Reading in 1980 and now live in Cambridge.

Mrs Karpowicz, an artist, has fond memories of growing up in the camp.

She said: “We were born in the maternity hospital in Wallingford while our parents were living in Checkendon camp in the Fifties and we grew up here.

“I remember playing in the bluebell woods with my cousins who would come and visit from up north because some of them migrated up there to work in the mills with their parents and they would come every summer.

“We’ve been coming back for 40-odd years and have pinpointed where my hut was and where Zbig’s hut was and also where his grandad kept a beehive. That was quite emotional. I have good memories of being here. The Chilterns are so amazing.”

Mr Karpowicz, who works in conservation, said that the camps are well remembered locally and hopes the project will help keep their history alive.

For more information about the roll of honour, contact Graham at grahamdrucker49@gmail.com