Lyjak Family

Władysław Lyjak was born in Chełm, in Poland, close to the Ukrainian border. After the Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland, he was deported to Siberia and forced to work in logging. Following the release of Poles from Siberia, he joined the Polish 2nd Corps in Persia and fought at Monte Cassino in Italy before coming to England with the army. Here he started work at the brickworks in Bedford.

Julia Wegrzyn also lived near the Ukrainian border at Budy Łańcuckie. Her family was also deported to Siberia after the Russians invaded. The family included her parents Franciszek and Anna, and her sisters Stefa and Maria, and brothers Józef and Antoni. In Siberia they suffered hardship and starvation, and Franciszek died there.

When the Poles were freed and made their way to Persia, the women in the family were evacuated to Rongai (outside Nairobi), where they lived in mud huts and trained to become nurses. In 1948 they came to England and ended up at the Marsworth Polish Hostel. Because of the language barrier Julia was unable to continue her nursing career. Instead, she found work as a seamstress in Leighton Buzzard.

Regular Saturday night dances were held at Marsworth to which Poles from other areas were invited and bussed in. That is how Władysław met Julia after being bussed in from Bedford. They married at St Joseph’s Church in Aylesbury in 1949.

After they were married Władysław moved to Marsworth and got a job at the cement works in Pitstone. Tadeusz was born in 1952 and lived at Marsworth until March 1959 when the family moved to Dunstable, where he still lives. Being so young when he moved away, Tadeusz remembers only a few things from that time:

Playing on Cheddington airfield where some of the huts contained old vehicles.
He remembers that the Nissen huts were heated by a wood burning stove, which was also used for cooking. Water had to be fetched by bucket from elsewhere.
The rectangular shaped huts were larger and could house more than one family.
He briefly attended Marsworth School.