
Florian PEREPECZKO
Major Florian Perepeczko was born in 1903 in Krasnodar, Russia. His father’s family came from the Wilno region, and his mother – nee Tabęcka – came from Galicia.
At the age of 16 he was sent to the troops of General Żeligowski and took part in the Polish-Soviet war of 1920.
In 1928 Florian married Wilhelmina Tabęcka in Lwow, where he was stationed in the motor troops in the 1920s. Both their children Krystyna and Andrzej were born there. In the second half of the 1930s, he was transferred to the Armored Weapons Training Center in Modlin. The balls organized in the Officers' Mess there became a family legend: right after midnight a military tankette filled with roses would ride up the stairs to the first floor to please the ladies partying there…
Before 1939, he was an instructor and lecturer at the Armored Weapons Training Center in Modlin.
During the 1939 September Campaign, Florian was a Lieutenant of the Polish Army, 6th Division in Lwow. On 17 September he evacuated to Hungary, then to France, where he joined the Polish Army being re-formed there. When France fell, he was evacuated to the U.K. in what is known as the Dunkirk Evacuation, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. He was sent to Scotland, where the 1st Polish Armoured Division was training. He was a technical officer in the 1st Polish Armored Division under the command of General S. Maczek.
He became the Commander of the10th Workshop Company - the name was later changed to the Workshop Company of the Rifle Brigade.
He took an active part in the war against Germany in France (1940/1944), Belgium, and the Netherlands (1944/1945), until he was wounded and evacuated to England. He was part of the occupation forces in Germany from 1945-1947.
After the war he married again in the UK. His family in Poland had no information about his fate or whereabouts during the war. Everybody was convinced that he must have died during operations at the front. Only in the 1950s, his son Andrzej, who sailed on merchant ships to England, learned through contacts that his father was still alive. He had the opportunity to meet him after almost 15 years. Florian met his first wife and the mother of his children only after 25 years.
However, this fact had to remain a great secret because in those years having a family abroad, outside the Polish People's Republic, could result in imposing horrible sanctions on them…
He was awarded many Polish, French and British medals, including the 1939 Defence of Poland medal, the France & Germany Star, the 1939-1945 War medal, etc.
Florian died on April 15, 1990, in Glenavy, Crumlin North. Ireland.

Florian Perepeczko pre-WW2

Florian Perepeczko during WW2

10th Workshop Company - 3rd Mechanics' Course 1PDPanc., Scotland 1942.
Capt. Florian Perepeczko – Commander of Workshop, 2nd row, above the letter "M"
Copyright: Perepeczko family