Ambassador
Witold Sobkow and Lady Fiona Fraser. Photo: Polish Embassy in UK
Peter
Fraser's widow Lady Fiona Fraser was presented with the the Knight’s Cross of
the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by Ambassador Witold Sobkow at the
embassy in London.
“It’s
a huge honour - our only regret is that Peter is not receiving it himself,” she
told Scottish paperThe
Courier.
“I
think he would be very proud of this honour but he probably wouldn’t have
regarded his efforts as particularly outstanding.”
The
Scottish peer was an impassioned promoter of the legacy of General Stanislaw
Maczek, a tank commander who led the First Polish Armoured Division.
Maczek
helped win decisive Allied victories during Operation Overlord, the 1944 Battle
for Normandy, before liberating numerous towns in the lead-up to Germany's
capitulation.
He
ultimately became commanding officer of all Polish forces in the United Kingdom
until their demobilization in 1947.
However,
with a Soviet-backed communist regime installed in Poland, Maczek remained in
the UK alongside thousands of other veterans.
He
ended up working as a barman in an Edinburgh hotel, dying in 2004. Lord Fraser
successfully campaigned for a monument to be erected in the general's honour,
before dying suddenly in 2013 aged 68.?(nh)
