My Dad was Polish and he settled here after the war with his whole family. Father, Mother, Brother and Sister. It was further complicated by his Dad, my Grandad, being Russian and an orthodox priest. He had already left Russia because of communist oppression. I will never know the full story now but I believe, while in Russia, my Grandad was incarcerated and his young bride, my Grandma, along with her baby son, my Dad, had to make it back to Poland under her own steam. A journey of some 1200 miles from Kropotkin to Bielystok. A lot of it on foot and living off what she could forage.

My Dad, 17 years old when Po!and was invaded, was forced to work for both the Germans and Russians in turn and eventually joined the 8th army in Italy. I will never get to the bottom of that either! We do have his war record and it was nothing remarkable apart from being put in the glass house for unlawfully discharging his weapon at the Scottish transit camp where his parents were being kept.

Thankfully we have never had to suffer those depredations and, hopefully, never will. Without wishing to get too political, is it any wonder that I am for the European Union that has helped to maintain the peace in Europe all these years?