Polish Graves at All Saints Marsworth

There are 18 Polish graves in the churchyard of All Saints, always well tended.

While the Hostel had its own Catholic chapel, burials had to take place in the local All Saints churchyard. These funerals were always occasions for a remarkable procession from the Hostel chapel along Long Marston Road, over the canal bridge and up the hill to the church.

The Polish graves in the 1950s

The Polish graves, 2019

Polish Burials – All Saints Marsworth

Row	Name	Abode	When Buried	Age
10, No. 34	Stanislaw Karpinski	Marsworth Hostel	14 March 1949	54
10, No. 33	Zygmunt Marsalek	Marsworth Hostel	30 July 1949	21
10, No. 32	Eudokia Bazyluk	Marsworth Hostel	1 Oct. 1949	56
10, No. 27	Jan Roslanowski	Marsworth Hostel	24 Oct. 1949	59
10, No. 31	Tatjana Wozniak	Marsworth Hostel	17 Nov. 1950	50
10, No. 30	Paulina Celtner	Marsworth Hostel	23 Dec. 1950	56
10, No. 29	Ks. Ludwik Zmikowski	Polish Hostel, Marsworth	28 June 1952	51
10, No. 28	Tomasz Bednarczyk	Polish Hostel, Marsworth	23 August 1952	64
11, No. 33	Petronela Szczepanska	Polish Hostel, Marsworth	October 1954	42
11, No. 31	Stanislaw Wozniak	9 Grantham Road, Luton	18 Dec. 1954	20
10, No. 26	Aniela Wielgomas	Marsworth Hostel	19 March 1955	39
10, No. 25	Stefania Olchowicz	Marsworth Hostel	23 July 1955	75
10, No. 24	Jozef Parkitny	Marsworth Hostel	27 August 1955	45
10, No. 23	Jozef Ginalski	2 Vicarage Road, Marsworth	28 Sept. 1957	58
10, No. 27	Jan Oleszkiewicz	Polish Hostel, Marsworth	25 May 1958	2 days
10, No. 27a	Brunon Labuda	Ilkeston, Derbyshire	16 July 2014	86
10, No. 27a	Doreen Labuda	Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire	23 April 2015	86
11, No. 30	Ignacy Wozniak	Luton & Dunstable Hospital	20 August 1958	63
11, No. 32	Waclaw Szczepanski	Pitstone	25 July 1962	59
10, No. 26	Bronislaw Wielgomas	Leighton Buzzard	3 April 2003	90
12, No. 30	George Wojniak	Aston Clinton	31 July 2006	54
14, no. 15	Maria Gordon,formerly Puszczynska		18 June 1977

Elsewhere in the churchyard
at Row 14, no.15 is the grave of Maria Puszczynska Gordon,
who died 18 June 1977.

'Mystery' grave in Polish section of churchyard

The unnamed grave marked by a simple wooden cross at Row 11, no.34, near the road appears to be part of the Polish section. However there is no reference in the All Saints Burial Register of any Polish burial in this plot, nor in the book of Interment Locations.

Wladyslaw Szyszko (who used to maintain the Polish graves in Marsworth churchyard with his wife Anna) said he made the cross himself and told a previous vicar at Marsworth church that the grave was that of Janina Puszczyńska. There is no record of her burial however.

It is more likely that the grave pre-dates the arrival of the Poles, and is of a local person.

The grave of Ludwik Zmikowski

Fr Ludwik Zmikowski was a very popular priest of the Hostel, killed tragically in 1952.

Click here for more information and photographs of Fr Zmikowski on the Religion page.

Zygmunt Marszalek was 21 years old when he died on 24th July 1949. He went swimming in Wilstone Reservoir, depsite the signs instructing people not to swim there. He drowned and despite efforts to save him it was too late.

According to the inquest, “Marszalek had come to the Polish camp at Marsworth only a few days before from a college in Cambridgeshire, to spend a few months’ holiday with his mother and brothers, who live at the camp. It was his first visit to the reservoir. He passed a swimming course in East Africa.”

Click here to read the inquest report