Living In Tweedsmuir Camp - 1948 to 1957 Introductory Outline This part of our website is devoted to our experiences of living in Tweedsmuir Camp as children of parents who were part of the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC) immediately after World War Two. The foreword and chapters are taken from a book we presented to the History of Thursley Society in 2003; the same year in which we gave a talk to the Thursley Village community about our experiences of living in the camp. Foreword - The Rationale In the foreword we endeavour to explain the reasons why we were drawn to write about living in Tweedsmuir Camp and to show how the project evolved. Chapter 1 - The Odyssey The Odyssey describes our parents' arduous journey during WWII, which took them to Siberia, the Middle East, Southern Europe and finally England. Here they met, became engaged and spent the first 10 years of their married life in Tweedsmuir Camp. Chapter 2 - Domestic Life After 6 years of war, life in Britain in the late 1940s and early 1950s was difficult. Even though we, as children, had an idyllic existence in Tweedsmuir our parents had to show ingenuity and self-reliance in order to cope with life in the spartan surroundings of an ex-army camp. Chapter 2 describes some of the ways in which they guided us through our formative years. Chapter 3 - Making a Living Chapter 3 illustrates examples of officialdom our parents faced when seeking employment and, having had their personal lives and education cut short by WWII, describes the work they pursued in the late 1940s and early 1950s in order to provide for a young family. Chapter 4 - Cultural Life Having been raised in a predominately Catholic environment in Poland before WWII , the Polish community in Tweedsmuir Camp continued to observe the traditions to which they were accustomed. As well as describing these traditions, Chapter 4 also presents an account of our first experiences of school and how these affected our lives. Chapter 5 - Demise of Tweedsmuir Camp Tweedsmuir Camp was never intended to be a permanent establishment. By the mid 1950s many of the Polish families living there had moved out whereupon the camp was gradually dismantled. In this chapter we recount our last few weeks as occupants there, together with a description of a few relics left behind by the Polish community. Copyright © 2006: Wies and Zen Rogalski