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A CROWNING MOMENT
I thought I would share with your readers a special family photograph. It shows my mum, Wladyslawa, in the centre with other children, dressed in traditional Polish costume waiting to take part in a parade in the market town of Leek, Staffordshire, to celebrate the Queen’s coronation in 1953. The homemade display shows the coat of arms of Poland, a white crowned eagle on a red background, which symbolises the sovereignty and unity of the state, and a picture of Elizabeth II and the words “God save the Queen” and “ER”.
My mum’s home when this photograph was taken was a Nissen hut on Blackshaw Moor in Staffordshire. Following the end of the Second World War, Polish troops and their families, some who had been released from forced labour, had been allowed to settle in Britain under the Polish Resettlement Corps until their demobilisation. In 1946, my grandparents and mum were among the Polish refugees placed in an old isolated army camp on Blackshaw Moor,
