Ex-Grenadier Guardsman who trooped the Colour told he is not British Former soldier who arrived in UK aged seven refused passport
GRANDFATHER Tadeusz Polanski served as a Grenadier Guardsman in the British Army.
He has marched in the Changing of the Guard and Trooping the Colour ceremonies.
His mother and father were British citizens as were his brother and sister.
Yet the 74-year-old ex-serviceman, who lives in Birmingham, has been told he is not British enough for a UK passport.
In a row which echoes the recent scandal of the Windrush Generation furore, Mr Polanski, who arrived in Britain at the age of seven after his parents fled the Nazis, has been informed by the Home Office he is not a British citizen. Instead, the father-ofthree has been told to apply for a South African passport because he arrived in the UK via the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia.
Retired Mr Polanski served for six years in the British Army and later spent 33 years running Haby Pet shop in Holybank Road, Kings Heath.
He first became aware there was a problem when he tried to apply for a passport in 1996 and has been blocked ever since.
Now the pensioner’s treatment has been raised by his MP, Richard Burden, in the House of Commons.
“I don’t understand,” says Mr Polanski. “My mother and father were British citizens, as are my brother and sister.
“But I’ve been told I am not. This is my country, I have served in the forces, paid my National Insurance and taxes. It is very unsettling, very upsetting.”
Mr Polanski’s parents, Antoni and Franciska, fled their home of Krakow in Poland during the early part of the Second World War.
They resettled in Southern Rhodesia where where they had three children, including Mr Polanski, who was born in 1944.
The family was offered the chance to move to the UK, Australia or New Zealand – and chose Britain, living in Reading and Slough.
After leaving school in 1961, Mr Polanski joined the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and served in Germany, Cyprus and the UK.
He also wore the famous bright red jacket and bearskin hat for the Changing of the Guard and Trooping of the Colour ceremonies.
Mr Polanski married wife Patricia in 1968 and settled in Birmingham, where he has worked and lived ever since. He worked for WH Smith before he opened the pet shop.
Northfield MP Mr Burden raised his case last week as the House of Commons grilled Home Secretary Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal.
Many of those who arrived in the UK from Caribbean colonies during the 1950s have been told they are not British when applying for proof of citizenship, leaving them at risk of being denied access to services like the NHS.
In response, the Government has pledged to create a “fasttrack” process to resolve the issues within two weeks of those who legally came to the UK.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Burden told Ms Rudd: “Some of the problems faced by the Win- drush Generation go well beyond people who came here from the Carribbean.
“Can I tell her about a constituent of mine, who was born in a Commonwealth country to Polish refugees from Nazism, who has lived in this country since 1951 and who has served in the Grenadier Guards – and was turned down for a UK passport?
“Will people in his situation be subject to the fast-track procedure?”
In response, the Home Secre- tary told him: “I find the honourable gentleman’s statement very surprising and I would ask him to write to me about it.
“The default position of the team I am setting up is to accept people.
“The only exception where they wouldn’t be accepted is on serious criminality.”
Mr Burden later told the Post that the Home Office had written back to him, but called their response “underwhelming, to say the least”.
He said: “The Home Secretary said the Windrush cases were a result of procedures and processes getting in the way of understanding people, and that is exactly what has happened here.”
The Home Office said it was going to contact Tadeusz Polanski about the issue.
A spokesman said: “The Home Secretary has been clear. This is about people who have built their lives here in the UK and contributed so much to our society. We don’t want them to feel unwelcome or to be in any doubt about their right to remain here, and she has apologised unreservedly for any distress caused.
“The vast majority will already have documentation that proves their right to be here.
“For those that don’t, we have established a new dedicated team to quickly help them get the documentation they need and ensure this is resolved as soon as possible.”
This is my country, I have served in the forces, paid my taxes. It is very upsetting. Tadeusz Polanski