Documents and ephemera are often overlooked by collectors, they are hardly visually exciting and most go for only a few pounds, however they often open the door onto the past and individuals in a way that other objects rarely do. During the Second World War many Poles came to the UK escaping the Nazi invasion of their homeland. once here they served in the Polish Armed Forces in exile or the British military. Many Poles joined the RAF and at the end of the war they had created ties to their adoptive homeland. These ties, plus the Soviet occupation of Poland meant that permanent resettlement in the UK was a desire of many. Today we are looking at a set of documents for a Polish airman, Czeslaw Tadeusz Czeszejko-Sochacki who had been born in Włocławek in Poland in 1923. These papers cover his discharge from the RAF:

Together with details of his time in the Polish Air Force which was re-established as a separate administrative entity in 1944:

The medals he was entitled to:

And the confirmation of his resettlement after the war in Nottingham:

This city was to be his home for the rest of his life, with the man dying in the city in 1996.