A north-east photographer has received a special invitation to exhibit pictures of her grandfather in Warsaw – after discovering he is widely hailed as a resistance hero.
The Polish military have asked Jennie Milne, from Inverallochy, to travel to the country’s capital for the special show on Stanislaw Lis in September.
Mrs Milne only took up photography five years ago but has focussed on the Jewish and Polish communities in the north-east.
Many soldiers who had to flee their homeland during the Second World War settled permanently in the region.
Mrs Milne was helped in her quest to find more information about her grandfather by Janusz Ral, the son of Polish parents who has lived in Fraserburgh for many years.
She discovered that Colonel Lis had been active in the Polish Government in exile during the war after he fled the Nazi invasion.
A eulogy published after his death in 1967 revealed to Mrs Milne that he spent his life fighting for his country’s freedom – first from German and then later Soviet oppression.
Aged just 16, he started his military career as an artillery gunner and was decorated with the prestigious Cross of Valour.
He fought during the 1939 invasion and then tried to help with the defence of France a year later.
After the war, he settled in England and was the deputy-chairman of the World Federation of Polish ex-Servicemen, a member of the Commission for the National Treasury and secretary of the Armed Forces Unit’s Association.
He also served as President of the Grenadiers Association, a member of the Polish Journalist’s Union and even established the Association of Polish Philatelists.
Mrs Milne, whose work currently features in an exhibition at the Fraserburgh Heritage Centre, said: “Most of what was written about him was in Polish and included in records I received from the MOD, Warsaw Military archives, the Polish Government Treasury records, the Polish Library and the Polish Institute in London.
“I was asked by the general of the Warsaw garrison to put something together on his military career.
“Having this opportunity to tell his story through pictures is a big honour.”
Mrs Milne said she would be sending the pictures to Poland to be prepared for the exhibition but hoped to attend herself on the opening night.