Search begins for plaque to city's Polish medical school

The Paderewski Memorial Hospital at the Western General treated tens of thousands of injured Polish soldiers and civilians from all over the UK.

A plaque dedicated to the old City Corporation went missing, along with another which thanked donors including the Pope, after the hospital closed in 1947.

Now, on the 65th anniversary of the founding of the hospital, the curator of Edinburgh University's Polish Collection has appealed for their return. And Lord Provost Lesley Hinds today highlighted the Capital's strong Polish heritage ahead of an anniversary visit to the Polish Collection, a collection of war-time memorabilia, including medals, books and sculptures.

The Polish hospital was set up in a former children's convalescent home in the grounds of the Western General in 1941. It was run by Polish doctors who trained at Edinburgh's Polish School of Medicine, set up for Polish medical students whose training had been interrupted by the war.

The hospital, set up by Lt Col Professor Francis Crew, took its name from the Paderewski Testimonial Fund which donated substantial funds to the project.

Dr Maria Dlugolecka-Graham, curator of the Polish Collection at Edinburgh University's Medical School at Little France, said the City of Edinburgh Corporation played a key role in setting up the hospital and training the Polish doctors.

The curator, whose own father was a Polish soldier treated at the hospital, said the hospital's anniversary year would be a very appropriate time for the plaques to be returned.

"Sadly, the two commemorative plaques recording the help given by the City Corporation and the hospital's many donors were lost many years ago during major construction works at the Western General," she said. "If anyone knows anything about them it would be a great asset to the collection to get them back."

The hospital was officially opened on October 17, 1941, by the Earl of Rosebery and dedicated by Bishop Jozef Gawlina, chaplain-in-chief to the Polish armed forces. It had 150 beds at its peak and the outpatient clinics dealt with an average of 100 patients a day. By its end the hospital had treated nearly 40,000 patients.

In 1942 a commemorative plaque recording the Poles' gratitude to the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Corporation of Edinburgh for the use of the building and for "rendering all possible assistance in the establishment of a Polish hospital in Edinburgh during the Second World War" was unveiled at the hospital.

A second plaque commemorating donors to the hospital such as Pope Pius XII, who sent 5000, and an Anglo-American charity called Refugees of England was unveiled in 1944.

Activity at the hospital ceased completely in 1947. It had always been regarded as a hospital in exile ready to relocate to Poland after the war, but unfortunately political developments meant that never happened.

Councillor Hinds, who will visit the Polish Collection along with the Polish Consul Aleksander Dietkow, said: "I congratulate the Polish School of Medicine on its 65th anniversary. Its story stretches back to the founding of the school during World War Two, and its legacy lives on today."

THE FACTS

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

The school formally opened its doors on March 22, 1941, in a ceremony attended by the president of Poland, Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz.

Initially, students were drawn from the men and women serving in the Polish forces who had been unable to complete their medical training due to the outbreak of war and who had come to Scotland following the fall of France in 1940.

Though intended as a school for the armed forces, it accepted civilians from the outset. Students were taught in Polish with classes in pre-clinical subjects at the medical school. Clinical teaching generally took place in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, although some practical classes were held at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, the City Hospital and at the Western General Hospital.

A separate hospital, the Paderewski Memorial Hospital, was set up in the grounds of the Western General to provide care for members of the Polish armed forces and civilians.

The school closed in 1949, after 336 students had matriculated, with 227 students graduating with a medical diploma equivalent to the University's MB ChB. A further 19 doctors obtained a doctorate.