Polish graves in the UK: where to find them ahead of All Saints' Day
According to the Polish Catholic Mission, 45,061 Poles are buried in the UK across 1,057 cemeteries. Here is where Polish soldiers, airmen and others rest.
Author: Editorial teamPublished: 2 min read
Contents
Ahead of 1 November, All Saints' Day, many Poles living in the UK visit Polish graves in British cemeteries. Not everyone can travel to family graves in Poland, and there are a great many Polish graves across the UK. Below are some of the places described by the Polish Express portal.
Scale: more than 45,000 burials
Data from the Polish Catholic Mission indicate that 45,061 Poles are buried in the UK across 1,057 cemeteries. Polish graves can be found in Blackpool, Newark, Cannock Chase, Duns in Berwickshire, Liverpool and Manchester, among other places. Because Poles settled in different parts of the country, their graves are scattered widely. Some are forgotten and neglected.
London
At Gunnersbury Cemetery (W3) stands a Katyn obelisk erected in 1976. Every year Poles living in the UK gather around it, and in autumn volunteers clean the Polish graves and monuments there.
Highgate Cemetery holds, among others, the insurgent Stanisław Worcell, the illustrator Feliks Topolski and Herman Lieberman, a associate of Gen. Sikorski. Edmund Strzelecki, the explorer, is buried at Kensal Green. St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery is the resting place of Polish members of British intelligence, including Krystyna Skarbek and Andrzej Kowerski. North Sheen cemetery in Richmond has graves of Polish airmen and soldiers, and Brompton in Kensington has a few individual Polish war graves.
England outside London
The cemetery in Newark on Trent is regarded as the most important Polish military cemetery in the UK. According to the source, more than 300 Polish airmen, paratroopers and Second World War veterans are buried there.
Scotland
- Perth, Wellshill Cemetery: 381 Polish servicemen are buried here, including Gen. Stanisław Maczek, commander of the 1st Armoured Division.
- Edinburgh, Mount Vernon Cemetery: a Polish military section with airmen and soldiers of Anders' army.
- Glasgow, St Kentigern's Cemetery: a Polish section with graves of soldiers and civilians.
Who looks after the graves
Polish war graves in the UK are cared for by the Polish Foundation SPK and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A specific grave can be searched for using online tools such as FindGrave.
What this means for you
If you plan to visit a Polish grave nearby, it is worth checking whether a local cemetery has a Polish section or war graves. A grave search website can help you find a particular name. According to the author of the source, British people too are increasingly visiting cemeteries out of curiosity, having watched Polish customs on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.
Sources
This article was prepared automatically by AI from the listed sources and published without prior editorial review. Spotted a mistake? Use the “Report an error in this article” button.
Photos
- Cover: „halloween, cemetery, moon, fog, candle”, author: sakibmia2, licence Pixabay Content License; cropped or resized.
- Photo 1: „war, grave, unknown soldier, cemetery, soldiers cemetery”, author: GiselaFotografie, licence Pixabay Content License; cropped or resized.
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