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Post by Tadeusz on Dec 14, 2006 17:01:56 GMT
Hello, I am looking for information from people who lived in the Camp at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England. This is a typical English market town of some 30,000 inhabitants - in 1950 the population was about 14,000. At one time I was toying with the idea of writing a book - maybe one day that will happen. However, a website was started recently as part of a history for all project run by the County Library service and this is probably a better method of recording this for posterity. The camp was opened to Polish displaced persons in 1946 and was finally closed in about 1964/1965. There was a mix of people including families and members of the Polish Air force as well as some families and individuals who worked in Nazi labour camps. Many people emigrated from Melton to the USA, Canada and other parts of the world in the fifties and sixties. Some have made contact with me or have sent information to the website at www.leicestershirevillages.com/meltonmowbray/polishcampsinmelton.html. The site consists of a potted history of the Polish Community in Melton, some photographs, written and oral stories and even some converted 8mm film sequences. It is a little jumbled at present but order will be achieved soon. The Community is still active and since the admission of Poland to the European Union in 2004 the Polish population has probably doubled (certainly of those persons born in Poland). There is a Polish Church (blessed in 1963) and a Polish Club which was opened in 1968. If you can add anything, no matter how small, I am sure it will be appreciated by all. Regards Tadeusz
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Post by mgilmore on May 21, 2007 4:14:41 GMT
hi, my mom lived there during the early 50's, she was one of 3 girls, mother and father, last name Bohatko. her story follows the path similar to Wladyslaw Anders, Siberia, thru middle east into Africa then England. I am interested in locating if even available passenger lists on the MV Georgic traveling from East Africa to Southampton in the early 50's. also interested in any other info re: them while there, photos, contacts etc. Hope you can help!
thank you
Mike
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Post by Tadeusz on Jul 5, 2007 19:52:51 GMT
Hi Mike, Better late than never - I did not notice your email until today. I have some old records for the Melton Mowbray Camp which place your mother's family on what used to be known as Site 1 that used to lie at what is now the junction of Dalby Road and Valley Road. They lived in Hut number 17 on Site 1. The information lists :- Leon 43, Zofia 40, Lidia 16, Maria 14 and Olga 12. There appears to be a faint pencilled date against Leon 12.7.05. That is all that I currently have with regard to the Bohatko family. However there are still some people alive in the Polish community in Melton who may have known your family. Regards Tadeusz
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Post by mgilmore on Jul 15, 2007 1:10:23 GMT
Tadek,
This is Mike's mother Olga, I don't know what to say after reading your account of my stay in Melton Mowbray. This brings back an emotional reaction.
I am visiting my son Mike in California. We just came across your response and I am speechless and really don't know where to start, how are you able to get this information? Please if at all possible, send me your direct contact information to my email, aircavmkg@earthlink.net, (Mike's direct e-mail) so that we might communicate in a direct/discrete manner. We are looking for any documentation/photos of the family's time there, the Camp, events, VIP visitors etc. We are working on gathering information for a possible documentary/full feature script.
We certaiinly hope you can help.
Mike here, when my mom read your post, she was visibly moved. Thank you!!
We look forward to your next contact.
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Post by Tadeusz on Jul 18, 2007 15:06:13 GMT
Hi Mike & Olga, I have sent 2 emails direct to Mike's direct address as requested, I am just sending this message to let you know, just in case they may not have got through to your address. Tadeusz
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Post by strupinski on Dec 20, 2007 12:40:34 GMT
Hi, i have been trying to find out information on my grandparents that were in resettlement camps Just wondering where you found the list of names for the camps.
Many thanks
Hannah
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Post by peterwales on Dec 30, 2007 12:35:08 GMT
May not be relevant to the Melton Mowbray camp. but my parents- Olga(nee Banszel) and Jozef Rybolowicz- lived for a time with the local vicar and his family in Loughborough, a town in that area, in around the late 1940's. They may have been at the Melton Mowbray camp before this- I don't know, as both are sadly long deceased. After Loughborough, they went on to run a mushroom farm in Horndon-on-the -Hill in Essex. This was unsuccessfull, and eventually they settled in South Wales, where I was born. Any more information from anybody who has any memories of my parents would be gratefully received. Thankyou.
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Post by Tadeusz on Feb 4, 2009 10:26:27 GMT
To Peterwales, Query re your parents' names - Rybolowicz and Banszel. I think that the parish priest in Loughborough then may have been Father Kaczorowski - He died some 20 years ago. There may be some older polish residents in Loughborough who reach back to that time. It may be an idea to address this query to the current parish priest who covers the two polish parishes of Loughborough and Melton Mowbray, Father Stanislaw Tylka. For contact details please view the website at www.polishchurch.e-melton.co.uk/Historical notes:- There was a Polish DP camp at the old RAF station at Wymeswold (this also includes Burton on the Wolds) from which most people settled in and around Loughborough. Further, I have collected names from records in the Melton Mowbray polish parish circa 1953 and neither of your parents' names appears in these. Good look with the search ! Tadeusz
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Post by Tadeusz on Oct 31, 2009 20:10:37 GMT
For anybody interested "Zaduszki" will be held at Thorpe Road Cemetery in Melton Mowbray at 3pm on Sunday 1.11.2009. The ceremony will take added significance after the imterment of the first soldier of Polish origin to die in Afghanistan. He was a member of 34 RAF squadron. Yesterday A/Cpl Marcin Wojtak was laid to rest here in a full military funeral. He was 24 and died in Afghanistan whilst on patrol at Camp Bastion, Helmand Province. The funeral cortege was enhanced by thousands of Melton's residents who lined the streets.
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Post by sleepycat on Dec 3, 2016 18:18:22 GMT
My mother and her parents lived on the camp. Surname nosowicz. I was baptised there and only knew my godfather as uncle Stan. Think his surname may have been szostak.
Remember the huts and father kartowski! Would love to know more
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Post by tadeuszmm on Aug 31, 2017 12:30:33 GMT
I have not contributed for a while and previously appeared as Tadeusz on this string. My email address was compromised by a virus and I have nopw set up a new ID to access this site. Reply to sleepycat, I am aware of a Nosowicz family living in Melton. The remaining members are a mother and two daughters. One daughter is married and I believe lives in Derby. I have no record of a Szostak living in Melton, but the records I have relate to the year of 1953. The priest you refer to is Father Maksymilian Kotowski and is no longer with us.
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em07
New Member
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Post by em07 on Jan 17, 2018 3:28:43 GMT
Hi everyone, great this board exists. I'm currently looking up info on my mother in law's movements during the 2nd world war. She can't remember the name of the resettlement camp in Leicester near Loughborough. She arrived from Uganda and landed in Southhampton, however I cant find her on the passenger lists. If anyone knows the name Joanna Adamek and knows where her and family were resettled in Leicester please let me know. She attended Father Maksymilian Kotowski services.
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Post by tadeuszmm on Apr 11, 2018 0:18:26 GMT
Hi em07, There was a polish displaced persons camp near Burton on the Wolds at a disused aerodrome at Wymeswold. I know the name Adamek and there are some persons of that name living in the Loughborough area at present. Father Kotowski was the local Parish priest for both Melton Mowbray and Loughborough, until about 1980. The current priest serving both of these parishes is Father Krzysztof Zaleski and he resides in Melton. There was a fair amount of information on Melton Mowbray Camps at the following website, but unfortunately it was discontinued in August 2016. www.leicestershirevillages.com/meltonmowbray/polishcampsinmelton.html. Tadeusz
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Post by barbcanada on Nov 28, 2018 19:40:43 GMT
Hello, my mother, her mother and two sisters lived in the Melton Mowbray camp after they had arrived from Kidugala. Their last name was Mroz. If anyone has information on their family there, I would truly appreciate it. My father also lived in the area, but as he was older, he had gone from the Siberian camps, through the middle east, and then to boarding school in the UK. (my mother's brother was also in that same school) From there my father joined the RAF on graduation. His mother, sister and younger brother may have been in the camps in the area, as they'd been in Africa prior to resettlement in the UK, but I'm unsure which one. His last name was Kondracki. Parts of both families emigrated to Canada in the mid-1950s, some stayed in the UK. Any information is welcomed! This is a fascinating site that I have just discovered!
Barb.
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Post by wmszyca on Apr 15, 2019 11:19:54 GMT
Hello my Father Edward Mszyca was at RAF Melton Mowbray with my mum Stefania - I have camp photos( interior of barrel type hut) which could be from Melton Mowbray or from Wymeswold as they settled in Loughborough. My mum worked in a shoe factory at Asfordby so I assume the photos were taken at Melton. They were also first at a camp in Morpeth, Northumberland - my father had been in parachute regiment and my Mother joined him briefly at Morpeth ( she had just arrived in Harwich a couple of days before in October 1947 before they moved to Leicestershire. All the best everyone.
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