Fawley Court Old Boys Association Report

In the autumn of last year, a few old boys from Fawley Court began to work together to stop the sale of Fawley and to preserve this place for the Anglo-Polish community. An appeal was sent to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; liaison with the press was initiated and we contacted the founders of Divine Mercy College. We found confirmation in legal documents that the owners of Fawley Court are the Polish Community in Great Britain and not the Congregation of Marian Fathers – who are only custodians of this property, blessed as a place for Poles by the most outstanding personalities of the last millennium – His Eminence Cardinal Wyszynski and His Eminence Metropolitan of Cracow Karol Wojtyla, later HH Pope John Paul II. At that time we also began correspondence with the Charity Commission. We have received two replies in which we were informed that they are considering starting an investigation.

At the beginning of this year we constituted the Fawley Court Old Boys Network as an association led by Mirek Malevski (Miroslaw Malewski) in order to intervene more effectively in the recovery of Fawley Court. We contacted other old boys from Divine Mercy College through the press and via the internet and began to put on pressure on both church and government authorities. Letters were sent to His Eminence Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Head of the Catholic Church in Britain and to the representatives of the government and the opposition: Gordon Brown MP (Prime Minister), David Cameron MP (Leader of the Conservative Party), Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, Nick Clegg MP (Leader of the Liberal Party), Paul Goodman MP (MP for Fawley Court), John Denham MP (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government). We began cooperation with the East European Support Network and with Liberty. Representations were made to the Attorney General and to the Ministry of Justice. The first significant article in the British press appeared in Private Eye (8/01/2010). With the help of the editors of Nowy Czas we are continuing our appeal for support and inform the Polish community of current affairs – e.g. the matter of the Museum of The Rev.Jozef Jarzembowski, which was given to Divine Mercy College and unlawfully removed abroad by the Marian Fathers. Recently we have initiated liaison with police authorities.

We ask all old boys from Fawley Court for contact at fawleyoldboys@yahoo.co.uk or by letter, and we ask the Polish community for help in the recovery of Fawley Court and its Museum in order to preserve forever this our national heritage in Great Britain, for the dissemination of faith and education to the new generation from this place, according to the will of the founders.

The support and enthusiasm from all quarters (Polish and British) has exceeded our expectations. We are confident that we shall recover this part of Poland outside Poland and ask everyone for strong support of our activities.

Krzysztof Jastrzembski (Secretary, Fawley Court Old Boys)

ATTENTION

People who have, had, or in the last few years had to remove remains or ashes from the crypt of St.Anne’s Church at Fawley Court please contact urgently: Fawley Court Old Boys, 82 Portobello Rd, Notting Hill, London W11 2 QD, tel: 0207727 5025, fax 0208 896 2043, email  fawleyoldboys@yahoo.co.uk or  kristof@talktalk.net