Jadwiga Piłsudska
Jadwiga Piłsudska | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Coat of arms | Piłsudski |
| Born | 28 February 1920 Warsaw |
| Family | Piłsudski |
| Spouse | Andrzej Jaraczewski |
| Issue | Krzysztof Jaraczewski Joanna Jaraczewska |
| Father | Józef Piłsudski |
| Mother | Aleksandra Szczerbińska |
| Occupation | aviator architect |
Jadwiga Piłsudska-Jaraczewska (born 20 February 1920, in Warsaw, Poland) is a pilot, who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. She is a daughter of Marshal and Naczelnik Józef Piłsudski.
Life
Jadwiga Piłsudska was born on 20 February 1920, in Warsaw, Poland, the younger daughter of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, Poland's Chief of State (1918–22) and dictator (1926–1935), by his second wife, Aleksandra.
In 1937 Jadwiga began flying gliders and obtained a pilot's licence. In 1939 she graduated from secondary school and decided to study aircraft engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic.
In September 1939, Poland was invaded by the Nazis, initiating the Second World War, and her family realized that under the circumstances it would be prudent to leave the country immediately. Piłsudska fled with her mother and elder sister, Wanda, to Lithuania and eventually arrived in the United Kingdom. She resumed her studies, in 1940, matriculating at Cambridge University.
Later she acquired her aircraft pilot's license, and in July 1942, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary. With the rank of Second Officer[1] (Flying Officer) she flew unarmed military aircraft in the dangerous skies of wartime Britain and was, with Anna Leska and the Lithuanian-Pole Barbara Wojtulanis, one of several Polish women who served as wartime ferry pilots in Britain.
In 1944, she took a leave of absence to continue her studies by enrolling in the Polish School of Architecture at Liverpool University. In 1946 she graduated with an engineering degree in architecture.
In 1944, she also married Lieutenant Andrzej Jaraczewski, an officer in the Polish Navy. She has two children: a son, Krzysztof (in English, Christopher), and a daughter, Joanna.
Due to the Communist takeover in Poland, she remained in England after the War, as a political émigré. She has never accepted British citizenship. She used a Nansen passport, valid for all countries in the world, except Poland.[2]
In 1990, with the collapse of the Communist government, she returned to Poland and now lives in Warsaw.
Honours
She has been honoured with a Bronze Cross of Merit with Swords and the Commander's Cross of the Polonia Restituta.
See also
References
- Use dmy dates from April 2012
- 1920 births
- Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
- Alumni of the University of Liverpool
- People from Warsaw
- Female aviators
- Glider pilots
- Polish pilots
- Female military personnel
- Polish military personnel of World War II
- Polish World War II pilots
- Polish Air Force officers
- Air Transport Auxiliary pilots
- Polish architects
- Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom
- Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta
- Recipients of the Cross of Merit with Swords (Poland)
- Living people
- Polish female soldiers