Tweedsmuir Military Camp

We were highly honoured to have been invited by the Principal of the Polish School at Milford to give a power-point presentation on the morning of 19 March 2011 to the pupils and staff about Tweedsmuir Camp. Despite the enormity of the history that underpins the role of the camp immediately after WWII, we endeavoured to provide an insight for our audience that we felt would help them appreciate the trauma Polish people in the camp experienced.

Understandably, while the children were intrigued by our stories of going to school in Elstead, the adults were arguably more interested in the human tragedy that beset the Polish Tweedsmuir Camp community during and after the war.

On the evening of 15 June 2010 we gave an illustrated presentation to the Normandy Historians about our recollections of living in Tweedsmuir Camp.

Normandy is a small village on the western outskirts of rural Surrey where the villagers have a thriving interest in local history. Being given the opportunity to share our knowledge of Tweedsmuir Camp was an honour. We are grateful to them for their invitation.

Having opened the presentation in Polish, we were pleased to learn that the number of participants who understood our introduction was greater than we anticipated; many of them were members of families who lived in the camp with us.

The English and Polish participants' questions, during and after the presentation, were challenging and good humoured. This made for an evening that was both lively and cheerful. Thank you also to those who complimented us on the presentation.

A brief message on behalf of the Normandy Historians committee

Thank you both so much for the wonderfully interesting talk you gave to Normandy Historians on Tuesday evening. I think you could tell by our vocal members how much everyone enjoyed it, even if they had no direct association.

I do hope you will be able to come again sometime.

In December 2009 we were invited by Pam and Dave Dodman to provide material for a 'Historical Exhibition', which they arranged for 15 and 16 May 2010 at St Lawrence church, Diddington. As a consequence, and in honour of the memory of two Polish soldiers buried after the Second Wolrd War in the church cemetery, we decided to research at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum (PISM), the soldiers' military records. The organisers of the exhibition saw fit to include the outcome of our investigation in a booklet about Diddington Park - During the War Years.

You can read our findings by accessing the Gura and Dziegielewski link in the right hand column. Much of the personal information about these soldiers has been purposely omitted. The Historical Weekend link below that carries some details about the exhibition, which was an exceptionally warm and friendly event. All credit for its success must be laid at the door of Pam and Dave Dodman.

St Lawrence church stands next to the field upon which Diddington Camp (later No.6 Polish Hospital) once stood (see Diddington Camp link in the right hand column).

On the Sunday of the Historical Weekend we met Gerald Carpenter who was proud to announce that he is 82 years old. He was probably one of the last men to have seen the layout of what was Diddington Camp as he was charged with the responsibility of tidying up the site (see Diddington Camp link in the right hand column).

While preparing for the Historical Weekend at Diddington, Dr. A. Suchcitz, FRHistS., Keeper of Archives at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, requested that we provide for the PISM archives a portfolio of material about Diddington. We anticipate that the portfolio will add to the understanding of Diddington Camp / No. 6 Polish Hospital and, ultimately, fill in another piece of the jigsaw about the history of Polish Land Forces and Polish citizens in the United Kingdom after World War Two.

Hodder Education Publishers requested permission to include in a GCSE textbook (2009, Third Edition) by Ben Walsh two photographs from our website.

"Ben Walsh is an experienced GCSE history teacher, a senior examiner with a major examination board, a best-selling author and a celebrated expert in the use of digital technology in history teaching. As well as writing best selling books for GCSE Modern World History he has been the key developer of the highly praised Learning Curve online exhibitions for the National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) and he has blazed a trail in the use of digital video archives in the teaching of GCSE history, winning a 2008 BETT award."

('About the Author': Courtesy of Hodder Education

Image: Courtesy of Hodder Education. Original photograph: Courtesy of Corbis; image number TL029391. Photographer: David Turnley, photojournalist, New York)

Staff at the Kington Museum have developed an excellent educational tool, which can be used by Years 7 to 9 pupils to understand better the history associated with the Polish people who remained in the United Kingdom after World War Two.

The text on the Tweedsmuir Camp website is but one source that has been referred to in this education pack.

(Click the image to the right to open the educational material as a PDF file.)

Towards the end of June 2009 Godalming Museum hosted an exhibition of work completed by pupils of Rodborough Technology College. They have investigated the heritage of Witley Camp during the periods of both World War One and World War Two, including research about the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC). To this end the Tweedsmuir Military Camp website has acted as a source for information about life in a PRC camp.

The origin of Rodborough Technology College is rooted in Algonquin Camp, one of three camps situated on the Witley site; Laurentide and Jasper were the remaining two camps. Previously they were known as Witley 101, Witley 102 and Witley 103 respectively. The camps were renamed by Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ) on 6 June 1942 on authority from the War Office (letter BM1/2609). The same letter also granted CMHQ permission to rename Thursley Camp (which in the 1930s provided tented accommodation for British soldiers and named after a village in close proximity to the site) as Tweedsmuir Camp.

Although all three Witley Camps housed a few PRC personnel after WWII, the site was best known as PRC Headquarters (see Archives - 'Anxieties Over Closure of Tweedsmuir Camp' on this website).

(Images courtesy of Godalming Museum)

In the summer of 2007 we produced, for the Rural Life Centre, which is an open air museum situated deep in the heart of the United Kingdom county of Surrey, a booklet about the Polish community in Tweedsmuir Camp. It was sold in the museum bookshop and proved very popular.

The booklet is presently unavailable as it is being revised. The second edition will include a bigger section about the Canadian tenure of Tweedsmuir Camp with photographs from Canadian collections, a larger number of photographs donated by the local Polish community and the Polish community from abroad, and have a new cover. The additional content should make the booklet more informative, interesting and representative of the camp Tweedsmuir.

We hope that visitors to the museum will find the revised booklet more enlightening than the previous one.

On a cold, dank May weekend in 2006 we were joined by groups of people on the Tweedsmuir site where we gave brief tours of the camp remains. The groups had travelled from the Rural Life Centre, which they were visiting at the time. We focussed our attention on two aspects of the camp. First, the camp under the administration of the Lorne Scots during World War Two, and second our lives there as children of parents who were once personnel of the PRC. Despite the showers and near miserable temperatures throughout the weekend, most participants seemed to have enjoyed the presentations.

The tours coincided with an annual World War Two re-enactment weekend, which always proves a successful event at the museum.

In May 2004 we were invited to erect a temporary exhibition at the Rural Life Centre. Several visitors made complementary comments about the content of the exhibition, which gave a very brief account of the history of the camp. As with the Tweedsmuir Camp tours, this event also coincided with a re-enactment weekend.

Most of the artefacts once belonged to our father who seemed to have enjoyed collecting memorabilia about his life in the army and Tweedsmuir Camp.

As mentioned on the museum website by the director of the Rural Life Centre, the intention is for the collection, together with additional items, to be displayed on a permanent basis in the museum in the not too distant future.

The History of Thursley Society is dedicated to keeping alive memories of Thursley village. In September 2003 we were invited by the Society's committee to give a presentation of our research as well as an account of life in Tweedsmuir Camp as we remember it. It was a real pleasure to have shared an evening with both the English and Polish communities of the area.

Sadly one of the participants, Mrs Kot, who lived with us in the camp, has since passed away. She has been laid to rest in the cemetery of St Michael's Church, Thursley village.

In the same year we were privileged to have presented to the History of Thursley Society, and the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum copies of a book we completed about our recollections of living in Tweedsmuir Camp.