‘Facilities were basic before running water was eventually installed in huts’

DURING the Second World War, a contingent of Canadian and American pilots lived in Whitchurch in rows of Nissen huts formerly known as Coombe Park camp.

When the war finished the Ministry of Defence transferred the huts to Oxfordshire County Council to provide housing for refugees, mostly from Poland, some from other European countries and some British families.

The camp subsequently developed into what is now known as Manor Road.

The Polish refugees formed their own strong community and central to that was the chapel, or church, formerly on this site.

The visiting priest used to come from Reading to hold services, take catechism classes and prepare children for their first Holy Communion.

It was traditional on Holy days such as Corpus Christi for processions to be held with young girls walking in front dressed in their Polish national costumes or their First Holy Communion dresses, scattering petals.

A timber village hall was built where dances and various events were held. Many of the children attended the primary school in the Goring Heath almshouses.

As time went by, residents moved away, emigrated or moved into the council houses in Manor Road. Numbers attending the chapel diminished, resulting in its closure, deterioration and eventual demolition.

When the war ended, a communist government was installed in Poland. Most Poles felt betrayed by their wartime allies and many declined to return either because their homeland had become a hostile foreign state or because of Soviet repression of Poles.

Those returning to Poland who outwardly opposed the Soviet regime ran the risk of being imprisoned or even executed. To accommodate Poles unable to return to their home country, Britain enacted the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947.

This was Britain’s first mass immigration law. It offered British citizenship to more than 200,000 displaced Polish troops on British soil who had fought against Nazi Germany and opposed the Soviet takeover of their homeland.

After initially occupying Polish Resettlement Corps camps located throughout the UK, Whitchurch being one, many Poles settled in London as well as various other locations, often in towns close to their camp. Many others settled in the British Empire, forming large Polish-Canadian and Polish-Australian communities, or even in the United States and Argentina.

When the Poles first came to Whitchurch in 1947 times were very hard initially for everyone living in the Nissen huts.

The facilities were very basic before running water was eventually installed in each hut. From memory, the winters always seemed extremely harsh. Most survivors will immediately recall just how cold it was during these times when the outside toilets especially were a challenge to any young child who was caught short in the middle of the night; a far cry from the luxuries that we all enjoy today.

Despite the hardships, every adult went out of their way to find work, any work, in order to pay the rent and provide food. Many held down several jobs in order to make ends meet. No one dared to be seen depending on charity or social welfare.

Men who held prestigious professions, posts or trades in pre-war Poland were reduced to performing menial jobs in order to survive.

A large proportion of men and women had their education cut short as a result of the war and, being unable to speak English (at least initially), inevitably found work hard to come by.

Such was the spirit and will to survive that I vividly recall being told by my mother that the “rent man” who called every week to collect the rent was absolutely astounded when every household welcomed him and paid their full rent without fail.

The vast majority of Whitchurch Poles were Roman Catholics and in no time a Nissen hut was converted into a church where a Polish priest came from Reading to celebrate Holy Mass every Sunday as well as honour every Roman Catholic holiday and feast day. In order to maintain and uphold their Polish traditions, a hall was erected where social events, film shows, parties and stage performances were held on a regular basis.

Over the coming years the Nissen huts were gradually demolished as the council provided three-bedroomed, semi-detached houses for the camp residents.

As a result of all their efforts and hard work, people were eventually able to afford to buy their own properties.

Over the years, more families moved away and together with the inevitable deaths among the older inhabitants, the original Whitchurch Polish community was depleted and its existence has now been confined to the annals of history.

Let us keep alive the memory of the Whitchurch Poles. I believe it is vitally important for this beautiful, historic riverside village to acknowledge and always remember the Whitchurch Poles who, as a result of the adversity imposed upon them by an evil dictator, were forced to abandon their beloved motherland and seek refuge in a foreign country.

At the same time, it should also be recognised that every Polish refugee was extremely grateful for the welcome and opportunity that Britain kindly offered them.