EDINBURGH

This is how the memorial to General Stanislaw Maczek will look. It will be located on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and in close-proximity to the Stone of Remembrance.

WINSTON CHURCHILL appointed him to protect Scotland’s east coast from invasion.

Now Polish war hero General Stanislaw Maczek is set to get a fitting memorial on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, where a permanent home for it has been found.

He fought tirelessly in the Second World War, playing a key role in the Battle of Normandy, and helping to liberate parts of France, Belgium and Holland from German forces.

But when the war ended Poland was absorbed by the Soviet Union as part of an Allied agreement, and the ex-commander of the 1st Polish Armoured Division was unable to return to his birthplace.

Instead, he made Edinburgh his home and after being refused a war pension, took a job as a barman at a city hotel.

Campaigners have been pushing for a permanent memorial to him since 1994, when he died aged 102. Now, they have a site for a life-sized bronze statue of him outside City of Edinburgh Council Chambers.

The General Stanislaw Maczek Memorial Trust has raised £50,000 towards the project, but it needs a further £35,000.

Trust spokesperson Katie Fraser, whose father the late Lord Fraser of Carmyllie launched the project, said: “We have been so grateful to all those who have supported this project thus far. In recognition of that support, we want to ensure that all funds go directly to the memorial and also wish to see it established during the lifetime of some of those men to whom it is intended to honour.

“We are very pleased to announce that the memorial will be on the Royal Mile at the heart of our capital city.

“Located within a few yards of the Stone of Remembrance, where wreath-laying takes place every November, we think the setting is not only appropriate by suitably prestigious.”

Lord Provost Frank Ross said: “We are delighted this fitting tribute to General Maczek and his men is to be placed in such close-proximity to the war memorial at the City Chambers.

“Many people will pass by and have the opportunity to reflect on the general’s heroics and the many other war heroes who risked their lives.”