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Marsworth Parish Council

Marsworth Polish Hostel

Polish Graves at All Saints Marsworth

Information about Polish Graves at All Saints Marsworth

The Polish graves, 2019

There are 18 Polish graves in the churchyard of All Saints, always well tended.

 

While the Hostel had its own Catholic chapel, burials had to take place in the local All Saints churchyard. These funerals were always occasions for a remarkable procession from the Hostel chapel along Long Marston Road, over the canal bridge and up the hill to the church.

 

Polish Burials at All Saints Marsworth

 

Row

Name

Abode

When Buried

Age
10, No. 34 Stanislaw Karpinski Marsworth Hostel 14 March 1949 54
10, No. 33 Zygmunt Marsalek Marsworth Hostel 30 July 1949 21
10, No. 32 Eudokia Bazyluk Marsworth Hostel 1 Oct. 1949 56
10, No. 27 Jan Roslanowski Marsworth Hostel 24 Oct. 1949 59
10, No. 31 Tatjana Wozniak Marsworth Hostel 17 Nov. 1950 50
10, No. 30 Paulina Celtner Marsworth Hostel 23 Dec. 1950 56
10, No. 29 Ks. Ludwik Zmikowski Polish Hostel, Marsworth 28 June 1952 51
10, No. 28 Tomasz Bednarczyk Polish Hostel, Marsworth 23 August 1952 64
11, No. 33 Petronela Szczepanska Polish Hostel, Marsworth October 1954 42
11, No. 31 Stanislaw Wozniak 9 Grantham Road, Luton 18 Dec. 1954 20
10, No. 26 Aniela Wielgomas Marsworth Hostel 19 March 1955 39
10, No. 25 Stefania Olchowicz Marsworth Hostel 23 July 1955 75
10, No. 24 Jozef Parkitny Marsworth Hostel 27 August 1955 45
10, No. 23 Jozef Ginalski 2 Vicarage Road, Marsworth 28 Sept. 1957 58
10, No. 27 Jan Oleszkiewicz Polish Hostel, Marsworth 25 May 1958 2 days
10, No. 27a Brunon Labuda Ilkeston, Derbyshire 16 July 2014 86
10, No. 27a Doreen Labuda Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire 23 April 2015 86
11, No. 30 Ignacy Wozniak Luton & Dunstable Hospital 20 August 1958 63
11, No. 32 Waclaw Szczepanski Pitstone 25 July 1962 59
10, No. 26 Bronislaw Wielgomas Leighton Buzzard 3 April 2003 90
12, No. 30 George Wojniak Aston Clinton 31 July 2006 54
14, no. 15

 

 Maria Gordon,formerly Puszczynska 18 June 1977

 

  

 

 

 

 

Elsewhere in the churchyard
at Row 14, no.15 is the grave of Maria Puszczynska Gordon,
who died 18 June 1977.

‘Mystery’ grave in Polish section of churchyard

 

The unnamed grave marked by a simple wooden cross at Row 11, no.34, near the road appears to be part of the Polish section. However there is no reference in the All Saints Burial Register of any Polish burial in this plot, nor in the book of Interment Locations.

 

Wladyslaw Szyszko (who used to maintain the Polish graves in Marsworth churchyard with his wife Anna) said he made the cross himself and told a previous vicar at Marsworth church that the grave was that of Janina Puszczyńska. There is no record of her burial however.

 

It is more likely that the grave pre-dates the arrival of the Poles, and is of a local person.

Mystery grave

Fr Ludwik Zmikowski was a very popular priest of the Hostel, killed tragically in 1952.

Click here for more information and photographs of Fr Zmikowski on the Religion page.

 

The grave of Ludwik Zmikowski

The grave of Ludwik Zmikowski

Zygmunt Marszalek was 21 years old when he died on 24th July 1949. He went swimming in Wilstone Reservoir, depsite the signs instructing people not to swim there. He drowned and despite efforts to save him it was too late.

 

According to the inquest, “Marszalek had come to the Polish camp at Marsworth only a few days before from a college in Cambridgeshire, to spend a few months’ holiday with his mother and brothers, who live at the camp. It was his first visit to the reservoir. He passed a swimming course in East Africa.”

 

Click here to read the inquest report

The grave of Zygmunt Marszalek

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