Jan Tarczyński

Jan Tarczyński

Doctor of humanities, historian of material culture, resident of the United Kingdom, activist of the Polish independence emigration in that country. From 1991 to 2010, the closest associate of the last President of the Republic of Poland in Exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski.

Director of the Marshal Józef Piłsudski Central Military Library in Warsaw.

Vice-Chairman of the Scientific Council of the National Museum of Technology in Warsaw.

Vice-Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Naval Museum in Gdynia.

Member of the Archival Council at the Head Office of State Archives in Warsaw.

Vice-President of the Polish Cultural Foundation in Great Britain, publisher of the oldest Polish newspaper in Europe: ”Dziennik Polski - Dziennik Żołnierza” (Polish Daily - Soldier’s Daily) and ”Tygodnik Polski” (Polish Weekly), Member of the Board of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, member of the Council of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in London.

Publicist, journalist. Author of over 30 pioneering source books and more than 400 articles on the history of Polish automotive technology and military technology, as well as the history of Polish independence emigration after World War II. Automotive journalist, leading thematic series since 1980 in the weekly ”Motor”, monthly magazines: ”Młody Technik” and ”Automobilista”, quarterly ”Polska Zbrojna – Historia”.

Creator of dozens of television documentary films revealing unknown aspects of national history, including the originator and scriptwriter of the award-winning: ”General of Polish Hopes… Władysław Anders 1892-1970”, ”Forgotten Flotilla”, ”Vehicles of Insurgent Warsaw” and ”Blue Army 1917-1919” and the series ”Polish scientific and technical achievements in World War II”.

Originator and author/co-author of dozens of pioneering historical-educational exhibitions, including ”When Poland Said - No” in the Polish Parliament and ”Polish Airmen in the Battle of Britain in 1940” at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford and Lincoln Aviation Heritage Centre, Great Britain.

President of the Foundation for the Protection of Military Monuments of the Polish Historical Society in Great Britain under the patronage of former President of Poland Ryszard Kaczorowski (1992-2001).

Director of the Office of the former President of the Republic of Poland, Ryszard Kaczorowski in London (1996-2010).

Advisor to the president of the World Federation of Polish Combatants Associations in London (2005-2013).

Originator, co-founder and Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the Year of General Władysław Anders of the Senate of the Republic of Poland (2007).

Advisor to the Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression in Warsaw (2008-2012).

Originator, animator and main implementer of the entry of Polish military monuments of the Hel Peninsula from the 1930s and the period of World War II into the Register of Monuments of the Gdańsk Voivodeship, which made it possible to create the ”Museum of Coastal Defense” in Hel and an open-air museum of Polish military construction in Jastarnia (1996-1997).

Originator of the reconstruction of Marshal Józef Piłsudski’s last car, the Cadillac 355 D Fleetwood Special Passenger Limousine from 1934. Initiator and chairman of the Social Team for the Development of Inventory and Conservation Documentation as well as Reconstruction Assumptions and Execution Supervision of the reconstruction of this unique vehicle (2012-2014).

Originator, co-organizer and chairman of the scientific committee of the pioneering international scientific conference titled ”Polish technical thought in World War II in the service of the Allies” (2015).

Chairman of the Team for the development of a prototype honorary uniform of the Ministry of National Defense for the Cursed Soldiers - Indomitable (2016).

For outstanding achievements in activities for national history and Polish culture, he was decorated by President of Poland Prof. Lech Kaczyński in 2006 with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and in 1989 by President of Poland in Exile Ryszard Kaczorowski with the Silver Cross of Merit. Also distinguished with, among others, the Gold Medal ”For Merit for National Defense”, the Silver Medal ”Gloria Artis” and the Cross of Independence Merit, the Medal ”Milito pro Christo”, the Silver Cross of the Field Bishop, the Medal ”In the Service of God and Homeland”, the Medal ”100 years of the Evangelical Military Bishopric”, the Medal of the National Education Commission, the Medal of the Minister of Justice ”To the Meritorious”, the Gold Medal of the Guardian of National Memorial Sites, the Medal ”Pro Bono Poloniae”, the Medal ”Pro Memoria”, the Medal ”Pro Patria”, the Medal ”For Merit for Invention” and the Medal ”For Merit for Culture in the Polish Army”.



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“With Mr. Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last of the six constitutional Presidents of the Republic of Poland who, as a result of the Yalta dictate and the unjust end of World War II for Poland, were forced to live in exile, I worked for almost 20 years, initially as the president of a British-Polish foundation under His supervision and patronage, and from 1996 as the director of the Office of the former President of the Republic of Poland Ryszard Kaczorowski in London, established in execution of the Act of the Polish Parliament of May 30, 1996. The President embodied for me the majesty of the Second Polish Republic. He was a sincere patriot, a scout implementing in practice the motto ‘Everything that is ours, we will give to Poland…’, a man of great sensitivity, extremely warm, of extraordinary tact and a big heart. A man who knows how to unite people with deep life wisdom. Long-term work with the President taught me above all reliability of action and responsibility for decisions made, as well as building proper interpersonal relations and distance to everyday life matters. My unforgettable Boss had an objective attitude to the world and an extraordinary political insight. He also had a precious gift of foreseeing the development of a given situation and the effects it may bring. This was influenced by both patriotic home upbringing and painful experiences - imprisoned by the NKVD in 1940 and sentenced to death, he waited for a hundred days for the sentence, which was commuted to exile to a Kolyma labor camp. These experiences, as well as military service in the ranks of the Polish II Corps fighting for the liberation of Italy, created a certain distance that allowed the President to live in harmony both with his surroundings and with his own conscience. The death of President Ryszard Kaczorowski in the air crash in Smolensk on April 10, 2010, left a void in my life that cannot be filled. I lost not only a generally respected superior, but also a Person particularly close to me, whose kindness and cordiality supported me throughout the period of cooperation. Fate made it so that I did not accompany the Boss on the tragic pilgrimage to Katyn in 2010 - the President directed me to carry out another task…”

Motto: after Erskine Caldwell

“Great knowledge makes one modest, little knowledge makes one arrogant”.