Ilford Park Polish Home, Devon

My mother, Helena, spent the last years of her life being looked after at Ilford Park Polish Home in south Devon, England. I shot the photograph on this page during a visit on the occasion of her 92nd birthday.

Helena died peacefully in her sleep on 18th April 2016.

Ilford Park Polish Home provides residential and nursing care to former members of the Polish Forces under British command in World War 2, and their spouses.

After World War 2 the majority of Polish troops who had fought under British Command were unable to return to a Poland now under Soviet influence and control. Many feared being taken as political prisoners.

Due to their immense contribution to the war efforts, the Poles were seen in Whitehall and the wider community as deserving of special support and assistance. Churchill singled the Poles out as ‘special’ when in a House of Commons speech he declared that:

“Her Majesty’s government will never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops who have served them so valiantly and for all those who have fought under our command…”

The Polish Resettlement Act was passed in 1947. It was known affectionately as the Winston Churchill promise and made the then Assistance Board responsible for meeting the needs of qualifying Poles and their dependants. A total of 45 resettlement camps were set up across Great Britain, including Ilford Park.

Today, Ilford Park is now the last remaining home run by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), who took on this responsibility from the National Assistance Board, under the 1947 act. The home first opened in 1948 at Stover Camp, the site of a hospital built for expected D-Day casualties amongst American troops. Its original purpose was to resettle members of the Polish forces into a new life in the UK but over the years it evolved into a residential care and nursing home for elderly Polish veterans.

The home has retained a strong sense of community and commitment to Polish values and traditions and is affectionately known by its residents, the local community in Devon and Polish organisations as “Little Poland”. Today, its residents are those who were unable to make the transition from a resettlement camp into the outside community and those who were initially able to integrate, but in later years found themselves unable to cope.

Due to the disrepair of the original home, in 1987 ministers committed to build a new home on the original site using 9 acres of the 41 acre site.

Helena, Ilford Park Polish Home, England | 8th October, 2015

The home has retained a strong sense of community and commitment to Polish values and traditions and is affectionately known by its residents, the local community in Devon and Polish organisations as “Little Poland”.

A BBC documentary about the Polish Community living in Ilford Park, Stover near Newton Abbot in Devon, UK.

The Polish community at Ilford Park near Newton Abbot in Devon is testament to enduring relations between Poland and Britain.

BFI Little Poland