Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 8 on 17/5/2003.

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Josef Tarnowski's Fife

ORIGINALLY FROM POLAND, JOSEF TARNOWSKI TRAVELLED OVER 30,000 MILES IN AN AMAZING JOURNEY WHICH FINALLY ENDED IN ST ANDREWS, FIFE

Q: Tell us a little about your life history, and how you came to settle in Fife.

A: I was born in Poland. I joined the underground resistance after the country’s invasion by the Soviet Union in 1939, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years hard labour in a Siberian camp. The average survival period was one year. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin released the prisoners to fight. We took a four-week journey in cattle trucks, then went on to Iraq to guard the oil refineries. I then joined volunteers to form a Polish Parachute Brigade in Scotland, taking a sixweek journey by lorry and boat to Scotland, which felt to me like the ‘Promised Land’. After the war, return to Soviet-occupied Poland was not possible, and I got a grant to study electronic engineering in England.
In 1947, I married a Scottish lassie who I had met during the war, and gained British nationality in 1948. In 1985, my wife and I returned to her birthplace near St Andrews. I now work for a charity, spending time in Poland aiding the transition to a free market economy, and lecture at universities and polytechnics on business. In 2000, I was awarded an MBE by HM The Queen for promoting Scottish-Polish cooperation in industry and education.

Q: What are the area’s main attractions?

A: Fife is very rich in history: in the west lies the ancient capital of Dunfermline, whose abbey contains the heart of Robert the Bruce. In the north-east lies St Andrews, with the oldest university in Scotland, and the ru.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Questions and Answers

Page number : 53