Rotmistrz Ryszard Dembinski RIP

Kyt · Jul 24, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4392260.ece

Ryszard Dembinski was a moving spirit of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London for more than 40 years and for a quarter of a century guided it as its chairman.

He was born in Poznan in 1924, the son of an officer of horse artillery. Born just six years after Poland had regained independence after 125 years of partition between Prussia, Russia and Austria, he was imbued from his earliest days with a deep sense of patriotism and love of military, especially cavalry, tradition.

After the dismemberment of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939 he found himself under Soviet rule. With his mother and grandmother he was deported east, a fate shared by over a million Poles before Hitler in June 1941 turned on his erstwhile ally Stalin. Diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union were then restored with the signing of the so-called Maisky-Sikorski agreement in July 1941.

Released from a camp in Kazakhstan, the 17-year-old Dembinski joined a Polish army now being formed under General Wladyslaw Anders. This army was evacuated to Iran and was to form the nucleus of Polish 2 Corps which distinguished itself in the Italian campaign in 1944-45. Sent to Scotland for officer training he was, on gaining his commission, posted to the Scottish-based Polish 1st Armoured Division commanded by General Stanislaw Maczek.

The division landed in Normandy in early August 1944 forming part of the Canadian 1st Army. Dembinski was to be in action with it throughout the Normandy campaign. He took part in the bloody fighting resulting in the closing of the Falaise Gap on August 21. He was in action with the division as it advanced through France and the Low Countries, culminating in the capture of the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven in May 1945.

His military career ended with the Malopolski Lancers. He was to remain proud of his final rank of rotmistrz or cavalry captain, a position historically much cherished and exalted in Polish cavalry regiments, albeit by then unhorsed and equipped with armoured vehicles. He declined the promotion to general which was offered to some Polish officers after the fall of communism.

On disbandment at the end of the war he, like most of the 200,000-strong Polish armed forces under overall British command, chose a life of exile rather than returning to a Soviet-dominated Poland. He himself had already experienced the realities of life under communist totalitarian rule.

In civilian life he followed a number of careers in the City. However, his main passion was the preservation of the history of Polish forces, especially those in the Second World War, and he threw himself into the activities of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London. In 1947 the colours of the disbanded Polish forces-in-exile had been laid up there with poignant ceremony. These were joined by their memorabilia and their archives as well as the archives of the Polish government-in-exile and its diplomatic missions throughout the world.

Elected chairman in 1979, Dembinski remained at its helm until ill-health forced him to relinquish his post in 2004. During his tenure he ensured that funding be set up to preserve the institute’s collection and especially the regimental colours so sacred to a soldier. Most of the funding would come from the small donations of veterans, often themselves of modest means.

The institute is now a prime resource centre for the study of Polish history during its tragic wartime years and is visited by researchers and historians from throughout the world. It was especially valuable before the fall of communism when in Poland itself material covering the period was often censored and inaccessible. Apart from veterans coming to the institute on regimental days to pay respects to their colours, many come to see its military collection.

In June 1990 Dembinski was part of a delegation accompanying the Polish president-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, when he handed over the presidential insignia of office to the first post-communist President of Poland, Lech Walesa, in Warsaw. The Polish government-in-exile, often mocked and derided (not only by those behind the Iron Curtain), had kept the faith.

Shortly afterwards, Dembinski was to welcome Walesa to the Polish Institute when he was on his state visit to Britain. This was Walesa’s second visit, his first being when he was still just a dissident electrician. A few years later Dembinski was to host Walesa’s successor as President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Dembinski was married to Wanda Raczynski, eldest daughter of Count Edward Raczynski, Polish Ambassador to the Court of St James’s in 1939, and between 1979 and 1986 Polish president-in-exile. After the fall of communism the confiscated Raczynski estate in Rogalin, near Poznan, with its baroque palace and magnificent parklands, was returned to the family. They immediately gave it to the nation.

Ryszard Dembinski is survived by his wife.

Rotmistrz Ryszard Dembinski, cavalry officer and chairman of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, 1979-2004, was born on February 24, 1924. He died on June 29, 2008, aged 84
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Brian S · Jul 25, 2008

Sikorsi Institute

The Sikorski Institute is a mine of information.

They have helped me on several occasions with information about P.O.W. Camps located in Poland.

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