Delegation from Newark to be guests at state funerals of three Polish presidents in exile, Władysław Raczkiewicz, August Zaleski, Stanisław Ostrowski, back in the homeland they never saw free
A delegation from Newark is to accompany three Polish presidents in exile back to their homeland for a state funeral once their bodies have been exhumed from the town cemetery.
Władysław Raczkiewicz, August Zaleski, and Stanisław Ostrowski were part of a succession of Polish leaders who led exiled governments during the second world war when the country was occupied by the Nazis, and subsequent decades of communist rule under the Soviets.
None lived to see Poland become a free nation in 1989.
On November 6, there will be a service of farewell at Newark Parish Church that will be attended by a delegation from the Republic of Poland of several hundred people, including many military personnel.
Senior officials from the UK, past and present, will also attend the church service as well as the state funeral in Poland.
On November 12, the bodies of the presidents will be repatriated under the protection of the Polish Army.
Funeral services will take place later that day in the specially-created Mausoleum of the Presidents of the Polish Republic in Exile in Warsaw.
Newark Town Council said is deeply honoured to be assisting the Polish government in the exhumation and repatriation of their three presidents in exile.
At a meeting of the council’s finance and general purposes committee, it was decided the delegation of four to fly to Poland for the state funerals, paid for by Poland, would include the mayor, just as they did in 1993 when the mayor of the time accompanied the body of Poland’s wartime leader General Wladyslaw Sikorski was repatriated following his exhumation from Newark Cemetery.
It was voted unanimously that accompanying Mayor Laurence Goff would be Town Clerk Matthew Gleadell, a representative of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and a dignitary from the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire’s office representing the King.
The Polish government in exile was symbolic yet perceived to have value, mainly by Poles living abroad. Its existence gave hope that Poland would regain its freedom after years of Communist enslavement. It’s purpose was to preserve the sovereignty of the Republic of Poland and the preservation of constitutional continuity.
The office was held successively by Władysław Raczkiewicz, August Zaleski, Stanisław Ostrowski, Edward Raczyński, Kazimierz Sabbat, and Ryszard Kaczorowski.
The Polish War Graves Section of Newark Cemetery, where the presidents in exile chose to be buried, is the largest Polish plot of any cemetery in Britain.
General Sikorski now rests alongside Polish kings and other national heroes Sikorski in the Hall of Kings in Wawel Cathedral, Krakow.
A statue of Sikorski has been approved by the town council for the cemetery, where 440 of his men lay.
Newark Town Council actively promotes and supports Newark’s strong and historic links with Poland in many ways, not least in hosting the annual Air Bridge and All Souls’ commemoration services held in the cemetery.
It is proud to have a statue of Polish humanitarian aid worker Irena Sendler, who saved hundreds of Jewish children during the war, within the town council-owned Fountain Gardens on London Road.
It is also an active supporter of Newark’s Polish twin town of Sandomierz. Representatives from Sandomierz will be in attendance in Warsaw when the presidents are laid to rest.
From a cemetery management perspective, exhumations of any kind are rare.