This website
This website is dedicated to my family and friends.
A forgotten generation of Poles who fought for freedom during WW2 and settled in the UK.
Sadly in 2017 without warning, cancer took my mum.
She was a strong foundation in my life and her passing marked the end of an era for me, being the only remaining link with my Polish roots.
Whilst clearing my family home, discovering old Christmas cards, letters and day to day objects all holding a special memory, it dawned on me how quickly the next generation grow up and the previous vanish.
With so much family history and rare photographs through the decades, I didn't want them left in a box unseen.
They sacrificed everything for us and expected nothing in return.
This is all for my daughter.
Stan Krawczyk
.
My father's legacy. Photos, photos everywhere!
Photography was a popular hobby but not many took their camera through a war
or inadvertently documented life during the subsequent decades.
Dad's photos offer a small glimpse into the 20th century, my own time travel device.
My father was a very keen photographer, developing his own 35mm Ilford black and white negatives and prints.
He also used Kodak and Agfa Colour Slide film (younger viewers might have to google.) Anything colour was expensive in those days.
It's a nice glimpse into the 1950-1970's complete with that period patina you only get from the real thing.
Our modern digital world makes it quick and easy to take pictures with a phone or camera, but in those days you only had 24 or 36 exposures, if you made a mistake it cost you money or worse you lost a good image!
This site contains many of his photos and documents plus mine over the decades.
1920's - Great grandparents
1930's - Grandparents
1940's - Through the war
1950's - Demobbed in England
1960's - A swinging new start
1970's - Family life begins
1980's - Retirement and roses
1990's - Dad's farewell
2000's - Change in the air
2010's - Mum's farewell
2020's - The journey ahead
