Sylwester Gnatowski

1905 - 1984  (79 years)

• Name	Sylwester Gnatowski
  Born	4 Oct 1905	Zawady, Ciechanow, Warszawskiego, Poland
  Gender	Male
  Died	11 Oct 1984	Preston, Lancashire, England
  Person ID	I109	Mazovia 2
  Last Modified	15 Sep 2005

  
  

  Father	Bronisław Gnatowski,   b. 1863,   d. 17 Dec 1930, Zawady, Ciechanow, Poland  (Age 67 years)
  Mother	Antonina Morawska,   b. 16 Jan 1867, Zawady, Ciechanow, Poland ,   d. 1940  (Age 72 years)
  Married	1896	Sońsk, Ciechanów, Poland
  Family ID	F54	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Hilda Smith,   b. 20 Dec 1910, Bolton Le Moors, Lancashire, England ,   d. 17 Apr 1979, Newton With Scales, Lancashire, England  (Age 68 years)
  Married	May 1945	, Lancashire, England
  Children	1. Stephen John Armstrong   2. Andrew James Armstrong
  Photos		Sylwester and Hilda (Smith) Gnatowski c. 1976
  		Sylwester and Hilda (Smith) Gnatowski
  Headstones		Sylwester and Hilda (Smith) Gnatowski
  Family ID	F55	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Married - May 1945 - , Lancashire, England  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Sylwester Gnatowski c. 1980
  		Sylwek on motorbike
  		Sylwek, men and (Wojtek the bear), Palestine c. 1942
  		Sylwester c. 1942
  		Sylwester Gnatowski c. 1926

  
  

• Notes

  1) Performed his National service in the Heavy Artillery division of the army in 1925-1926. 2) Afterwards he worked in the National Forestry department until the outbreak of World War 2. 3) Aware of his impending arrest by soviet forces he went into hiding, however his mother (by then a widow) was arrested to force his hand. He gave himself up and after a brutal interrogation was deported along with Antonina and many thousands of other Poles to the depths of Siberia where they were expected (by the Stalinist Soviets) to die in total obscurity. Many did die. Of the 1.7 million Poles deported in 1940-1941 only 115,000 managed to get out. Sylwester was one of the survivors, Antonina was not. 4) Deliverance from Siberia was via Khazakstan into Persia (Iran) where the Anders Army was placed under the command of the Allies and Sylwester was deployed in Iraq and Palestine. At this time he had lost contact with the family who thought that he had perished for very obvious reasons. However he met up quite miraculously with his brother Jozef whilst in Palestine. Jozef had had a very similar experience at the hands of the Soviets and was also in Anders Army. Soon after this meeting Sylwester was shipped out from Palestine to the UK via the Suez, round South Africa hugging the coast of Africa and eventually to disembark in Glasgow, Scotland where he was enlisted into the RAF/PAF (Royal Air Force/Polish Air Force).