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| Haluch History |
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It probably all started in Gorlice  Poland in 1912 when Stefan Haluch was born to Maria and Jacub Haluch the youngest of four children – Maria, Benedykt, Jadwiga and Stefan. As far as we know Jakub was involved in the oil industry and the family prospered Benedykt going into the Polish Army and his siblings training in the professions including Stefan as a teacher. The Second World War affected the Haluchs in Poland as it did all Poles. By 1939 legend has it that Stefan was the youngest head teacher in Poland running a small school in the Tatra mountains near the Czechoslovakian Border and had become an expert cross country skier. His brother was by then a Major in the Polish Army and his sisters Viga in teaching and Maria in banking. WW11 saw Stefan conscripted in to the Polish Army and he escaped Poland by devious routes arriving in France in (we think) 1941 escaping to England on a coal boat to Liverpool from St Jean de Luz in the Basque country of France. Ill health saw him transported to Bangour Village Hospital in West Lothian, Scotland which was then a sanatorium for TB sufferers. One of his nurses was one Elizabeth (Betty) Wallace a native of nearby Bathgate. (See Jim Haluch’s bio for notes on the history of Bathgate.)Sadly the war took other tolls on the Haluch Family in Poland; Benedykt died with other Polish Officers at Katyn ; Maria and Jacub died shortly after the end of the war. In the passing years all the original Haluch Family have with the exception of Maria who still lives in Gorlice Poland at the spry age of 92. There is still a Polish branch of the family whom we hope to bring into the site in due course.Betty Wallace was ten years younger than Stefan in 1941 she 19 and he a world weary 29 year old ex-teacher turned soldier but the romance blossomed. Stefan recovered his health and took up a post in the Polish Hospital Service in Scotland being stationed in various places throughout Southern Scotland and Northern England. Wedding Bells rang out on 26 April 1943 and in March 1944 the first of seven children – James – named after both maternal and paternal grandfathers was born in Bathgate. 1945 saw the birth of Elizabeth and the end of hostilities and the beginning of a lean period for the young Mr & Mrs Haluch. Stefan’s marriage to a Scots girl allowed him to remain in Scotland when many of his compatriots returned home to Poland but he was still regarded for many years as a ‘refugee’. Betty had given up her nursing post to look after the new babies and Stefan’s post with the Polish Hospitals disappeared as they closed down at the end of the War so the family settled back in Betty’s home town of Bathgate . Stefan’s Polish teaching qualifications were not recognised in Scotland and for the next fifteen years he worked in factory production jobs to fend for his growing family and only a shortage of teachers in Scotland in the early 1960’s saw him take up temporary teaching posts in the Scottish villages of Armadale, West Lothian and Fauldhouse . Those fifteen years saw the arrival of Henry, then Benedict (Ben - who died at the age of 21 from cancer just before his graduation from Edinburgh University), Anne, Lenna and then Robert who died in Childbirth. Ben and Robert ate interred together at Bathgate’s Boghead Cemetery not far from the graves of their maternal grandparents.It was around 1960 that Betty became active in local politics, particularly in the Labour party and holding various posts in the Bathgate and West Lothian Constituency party organisations. This activity led to her nomination as County councillor and in 1962 she was elected to the then West Lothian County Council as Councillor for Linlithgow West. The next twelve years until the Wheatley Report transformed Scottish Local Government into a few regions were the heyday of Stefan and Betty. In 1965 Stefan’s teaching qualifications augmented by College Study were recognised by the new General Teaching Council for Scotland - one of its first recognitions after establishment in 1965. Stefan was now able to obtain permanent posts in Schools eventually becoming Head Teacher at St Margaret’s primary School in South Queensferry where he remained until his retirement from teaching in 1977. It has always been a source of wonder to the family of a Pole teaching English to Scot’s children!Betty, over this period prospered in politics. In addition to her Councillor duties she became involved in setting up the Scottish Children’s Panel system, Chaired various Council committees, took an interest in Road safety and as a representative on the then Lothian Regional Hospital Board contributed in no small way to the decision to replace the original Bangour General Hospital by the vast St. John’s Hospital at Livingston. Betty’s political life brought her into contact with Tam Dalyell MP now retired and latterly Father of the UK House of Commons. The Haluch’s and the Dalyells were close friends and this friendship led to Tam Dalyell’s citing in a speech in the UK House of Commons of a conversation between him and Stefan on the matter of the demise of Polish Officers at Katyn. (details here)With the coming of regional politics to Scotland in 1974 Betty withdrew from Council work and took up running a small coffee shop in Bathgate which had been established by her Son James and his wife Joyce. On Stefan’s retirement in 1977 he joined he in the coffee shop which they ran together until the business was sold in the mid 1980’s. You would think that at the age of 65 and 75 respectively they would have settled down to a quiet retirement. Not so, Betty took up running a charity shop in Bathgate until she contracted cancer at the age of 69 and only then gave up the fight. She died three years later in 19xx in Bathgate at the age of 72 and is buried at Bathgate’s Glasgow Road Cemetery. Stefan survived her for another three years until his death in 19xx and he is buried in Bathgate beside his wife of over 40 years. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 May 2008 05:17 ) |
