This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Ukraine

13th July 2011

A moving military and human story

Four British medals are laid out on a Union Flag.  The family stand proudly as the Defence Attache says a few words, citing a moving text from the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy which holds the graves over 1,000 Poles who died storming the abbey there in May 1944.  Then we present the Second World War medals to the daughter, grandson and other family members of a Polish farmer whose story encapsulates the suffering and turbulence which the 20th century brought to this part of Europe.

The remarkable Stanaslaw Wyslouch was born in what was Poland in 1920 but which became part of the Soviet Union in 1939.  He was interned by Soviet forces until 1941.  After the German attack on the Soviet Union, he was released and joined the Polish armed forces, later joining the British 8th Army via Iran, Iraq and Palestine; and fought in the Italian campaign of 1944-1945.  Unable to return home, he lived the rest of his life in the UK and died in 1990 having witnessed the end of Communist rule in Poland.  I recommend the full text of the citation for a humbling and moving story of bravery, suffering, separation and – ultimately – hope as Poland and Ukraine rejoin a reunited Europe.

Maria Kohut with her father's medal

Maria Kohut, daughter of Stanislaw Wyslouch, with one of the medals awarded to her father.

About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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attache british Defence medals Politics wyslouch

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