Polish Soldiers in Britain: Citizenship for Descendants

Often, yes. A man who served in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, settled in Britain and did not lose Polish citizenship before his children were born could pass it on to them, and through them to his grandchildren. The answer depends on a handful of dates in his life: when he joined the Polish Resettlement Corps, whether he later served in the British forces, when he became a British subject and when each child was born.

This guide explains how to read those dates and prove them. For the general rules on the 1920, 1951, 1962 and 2009 citizenship laws and the application through a Polish consulate in the UK, see our guide to Polish citizenship by descent for British citizens.

Why wartime service did not usually end his citizenship

Polish citizenship before 19 January 1951 was governed by the law of 20 January 1920. Article 11 listed the ways it was lost: by acquiring a foreign citizenship, or by accepting public office or entering military service in a foreign state without the consent of the Polish Government.

The Polish Army, Navy and Air Force in the West were Polish forces, although they fought under British operational command. Service in them was service in the Polish army, so as a rule it did not count as foreign military service and did not in itself end Polish citizenship. The difficult questions begin after 1945.

The Polish Resettlement Corps and why lawyers examine it

Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin announced the resettlement scheme in the House of Commons on 22 May 1946, and the Polish Resettlement Corps (Polski Korpus Przysposobienia i Rozmieszczenia) began enrolling men in the autumn of 1946. Bevin told the Commons that the Corps would not be an armed force and that its purpose was to move Polish servicemen into civilian life. In October 1946 he added that it was under the control of the British Service Departments and administered under British military law, with enlistment for two years. A Hansard answer of 1 February 1949 records that about 103,000 people had passed through the Corps by then, and that about 400 of them had entered the British armed forces.

That British administration is the problem. On 26 September 1946 the communist Provisional Government of National Unity in Warsaw passed two resolutions. One deprived General Władysław Anders of Polish citizenship. The other deprived 75 senior officers, treating their entry into the Resettlement Corps as entering foreign military service under the 1920 law. According to the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), the Council of Ministers revoked the resolutions on 23 November 1971; Anders’s citizenship was restored only in 1989, after his death.

Those resolutions named individuals, not every member of the Corps. Whether an ordinary soldier’s enrolment in the Corps ended his citizenship is not settled by a simple rule and is assessed case by case. Later enlistment in the British forces raises the same question more sharply, especially before 19 January 1951, while the 1920 rule on foreign military service still applied. The 1951 law also allowed the state to deprive individual citizens living abroad of their citizenship, with decisions published in the official gazette Monitor Polski, so a lawyer may check whether the soldier was named in one. If your grandfather appears in either situation, treat it as a question for a Polish citizenship lawyer, and have the exact dates ready.

Our guide to the Polish Resettlement Corps explains the Corps itself and where its records are.

When he became British: the date that matters most

The date of British naturalisation usually decides the case. Under the 1920 law, acquiring a foreign citizenship ended Polish citizenship, so a veteran naturalised before 19 January 1951 normally lost it, and under Article 13 the loss usually extended to his wife and children under 18. From 19 January 1951 the new law allowed a Polish citizen to acquire a foreign citizenship only with the permission of the Polish authorities. Men who naturalised after that date without asking for permission therefore usually stayed Polish in the eyes of Polish law. Our sibling guide on British naturalisation and Polish citizenship after 1951 covers this rule in detail.

Veterans naturalised before 1951

An early naturalisation is not always the end of the line. Article 11 of the 1920 law adds that persons obliged to perform active military service could acquire a foreign citizenship only with the permission of the Minister of Military Affairs, and that without it they did not cease to be regarded as Polish citizens by the Polish state. A veteran of service age who became British in, say, 1948 or 1949 without that permission may therefore have remained Polish. Whether he was obliged to perform active service on the date of his naturalisation depends on his age, rank and the military service law then in force, so this exception needs a lawyer’s assessment.

You can find the naturalisation date in the announcements published in The London Gazette, which The National Archives says can be searched online by name for naturalisations up to 1980. The certificates themselves are in The National Archives series HO 334. Our guide to naturalisation records of Poles in the UK explains how to find and order them.

Reading his MOD service file as citizenship evidence

The Ministry of Defence holds the service records of Polish personnel who served under British command in the Second World War. GOV.UK states that there is no fee for a request and that a death certificate is not compulsory, although without one information may be withheld unless the person died in service or was born more than 116 years ago. Processing can take up to a year. Our guide to MOD Polish service records explains the application.

When the file arrives, read it as a lawyer would. The entries that matter most for citizenship are:

Date and place of birth. The Polish spelling of the town leads to the parish or register office that holds his birth record.
Pre-war residence and family details. A pre-1939 address and parents’ names support his citizenship and lead to Polish population records.
Date and place of enlistment. These show when and where he joined the Polish forces, for example in France in 1940 or in the USSR in 1941 or 1942.
Discharge. The date he left the Polish forces.
Resettlement Corps enrolment. The date he entered the Corps and the date he left it.
Any transfer to British service. Look for an enlistment in a British regiment or corps after the Corps.

Files vary in detail and entries are often in Polish. Note every date exactly as recorded.

His wife and children born in Britain

A British wife married before 19 January 1951

Article 7 of the 1920 law states that a foreign woman who married a Polish citizen acquired Polish citizenship by the marriage. A British woman who married a Polish soldier before 19 January 1951 therefore became a Polish citizen in the eyes of Polish law, provided her husband was still Polish on the wedding day. From 19 January 1951 marriage no longer changed either spouse’s citizenship, so a British woman who married a Pole after that date stayed non-Polish unless she acquired Polish citizenship in another way.

Children born before and after 1951

A child born in marriage before 19 January 1951 took the father’s citizenship under Article 5 of the 1920 law, whatever the place of birth. A child born in Britain between 19 January 1951 and the 1962 law was Polish at birth if both parents were Polish citizens. A British wife married before 1951 could make both parents Polish. Where the father was Polish and the mother was not, the 1951 law gave Polish citizenship to a child born abroad only in narrower circumstances, so these births need careful checking. Children born after the 1962 law came into force acquired Polish citizenship at birth from one Polish parent, unless the parents chose the other parent’s citizenship for the child within three months of the birth.

The British side of the chain is proved with full birth and marriage certificates for every generation; see our guide to birth, marriage and death certificates in England and Wales. For births and marriages in Scotland, order the full entries from National Records of Scotland.

A worked example (illustrative)

This family is fictional. Tadeusz was born in 1921 in Tarnów to married Polish parents. He joined the Polish Army in France in 1940, was evacuated to Scotland and later served in the 1st Armoured Division. In 1947 he enrolled in the Polish Resettlement Corps and was discharged in 1949. In 1948 he married Margaret, a Scottish woman. Their son was born in Edinburgh in 1949 and their daughter in 1953. Tadeusz was naturalised as a British subject in 1956.

Tadeusz was Polish by birth under Article 5 of the 1920 law.
His service in France and Britain was service in the Polish army. His year in the Resettlement Corps is the point a lawyer would assess.
Margaret became Polish on marrying him in 1948, under Article 7 of the 1920 law.
Their son, born in marriage in 1949, took his father’s Polish citizenship.
Their daughter, born in 1953, had two parents who were Polish in the eyes of Polish law, so she was Polish at birth.
Tadeusz naturalised in 1956, after 19 January 1951 and without Polish permission, so the naturalisation did not end his citizenship or that of his children.

The evidence would be his Tarnów birth record, his MOD service file showing enlistment in 1940, discharge and Corps dates, his service book if the family kept it, his naturalisation certificate and full Scottish birth and marriage certificates. Change one date and the answer changes: had Tadeusz naturalised in 1950, at 29, the case would turn on whether he was still obliged to perform active military service under Polish law at the time.

When to consult a Polish citizenship lawyer

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Take advice from a Polish citizenship lawyer before you apply if the soldier enrolled in the Resettlement Corps, later joined the British forces, naturalised before 19 January 1951, came from the pre-war eastern provinces and was not of Polish nationality, or if a child was born between 1951 and 1962 to one Polish and one non-Polish parent.