E. B. Raczyński - biography

source: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernard_Raczy%C5%84ski source: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernard_Raczy%C5%84ski

EDWARD BERNARD RACZYŃSKI

The younger son of Alexander Edward Raczynski and Róża Potocki was born on 19 December 1891 in Zakopane. He graduated from the Jan Sobieski Gymnasium in Krakow and studied at the Jagiellonian University, where, in 1915, he was awarded a doctorate in Law. He also studied in Leipzig and London (The London School of Economics). From 1918, he began working as a Polish diplomat, participating in the Polish military mission in Bern. In the years 1919-1926 he was a secretary at the Polish Embassy in Copenhagen. Until 1932, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs in the Eastern Department. Then, from 1932 to 1934, he was a deputy associ-ate of Poland to the League of Nations in Geneva and represented Poland as a dele-gate atthe Conference on Disarmament. In 1934, he became the Polish Ambassador in London. During World War II, in the years 1941-1945, he directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Polish Government in Exile, in London (from 1942 with the rank of Minister of State in the office of General Władysław Sikorski). From 1947, he was the main Polish adviser to the British Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. During the years 1954-1972, together with Władysław Anders and Tomasz Ar-ciszewski, he was a member of the Supreme Council of National Unity (The Council of The Three in London), and during 1979-1986 he became President of Poland in exile. He was also the founder and longtime President of the Polish Institute in Lon-don and the General Władysław Sikorski Museum.

His literary works are: The British-Polish Alliance, Its Origin and Meaning, 1948; Polish foreign policy during World War II, 1953; In Allied London (1960 in Polish and 1962 in English); Rogalin and its inhabitants, 1964; Mrs. Rose, 1969; From Narcissus Kulikowski to Winston Churchill, 1976; translations of Omar Khayyam; Rubayat (in the same book of poems as his own poetry), 1960; Wirydiana Fiszerowa, History of my own, in 1975.

As the President of the Republic of Poland he received: the Order of the White Ea-gle and the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. He was awarded: the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the Medal of the Decade of Regained Independence, the Or-der of Pius IX, the Order of the British Empire, the Order of the Crown of Romania, the Order of the Star of the High Country of Afghanistan, the Latvian Order of the Three Stars, and the Danish Order of Danebroga.

In 1991, he founded the Raczynski Foundation at the National Museum in Poznan, to which he donated paintings and other works of art from the palace in Rogalin and bequeathed ownership of the palace and park.

He was married three times: in 1925 to Joyous Markham (d. 1931), in 1932 to Ce-cilia of Jaroszyńscy (d. 1962), and in 1991 to Aniela of Lilpopowie, primo voto Miec-zysławska. His marriage to Cecilia of Jaroszyńscy produced three daughters: Wanda, Wirydiana and Catherine.

He died on 30 July 1993 in London as the last male descendant of the Polish Raczyńscy line. He was buried on 9 August 1993 in the family mausoleum in Rogalin.

Author: Joanna Nowak