Tribute to an amazing woman

The post-war Polish community in Loughborough has lost one of its founder members, Theresa Mamnicka Manson who passed peacefully away on 17th November, 2020.

Her life story reads like a Greek tragedy, except that it was real!

In 1939 she lost her father who was deported by the Soviets to Siberia. In February 1940 her mother and four children were forcibly settled to work in the forestry of Archangel Region of Russia. Within months Theresa’s mother disappeared, presumed killed by a bear. In 1941, as if by miracle - her words, all four orphans managed to travel to the South of Russia where Theresa’s eldest bother at 16 joined the Polish Cadet Unit and the younger children were put into a Soviet orphanage in Ashabad.

There Theresa’s life was saved by a Russian surgeon who operated through the neck without any anaesthetic on her infected tonsils. With her hardly healed wounds, together with other children, they were evacuated by Polish Red Cross by road via Iran all the way to India where she eventually passed Cambridge Overseas Matriculation.

After the Second World War, she joined her now soldier brother in England. She studied Commerce at Leicester College where she met and married Kasimir. They had two children together, Anna and Jan, who attended Loughborough High School and Grammar School, respectively.

From 1962, besides being active members of the local Polish community, Theresa joined local charities including the Meals on Wheels support team.

The normalised happy life was abruptly curtailed when her 23-year-old son was killed in a road accident and soon after her husband died and then her beloved grand-daughter was killed by a taxi while on student voluntary work in India.

Theresa’s strong religious beliefs helped her to bear the crosses of life and yet maintain lifelong friendships.

Jerzy Kowalski