About eight miles north of  Southampton  in Chandlers Ford were two large WW2 military camps used by the Americans and Canadians in preparation for the D-Day landings.  Later they housed German and Italian  prisoners of war.

After the war one of the now empty camps was occupied by the  Polish Resettlement Corps whose soldiers were returning form the battlefields of Italy. Later they were joined by their families who had spent the war in Displaced Persons (DP) camps scattered throughout Europe, India and Africa. The camp was known as Hiltingbury Polish Dependant's Hostel and, in 1946,  it was  the  first port of call for Polish civilians, mainly women and children, arriving in Southampton docks from Italy before being dispersed to other camps.

By 1947 the camp, which by now was administered by the National Assistance Board with an English warden at it's head was already  housing  over 800 displaced Polish people from all walks of life; teachers,  doctors, lawyers, engineers to farmers and farm workers. This diversity of people, who under normal circumstances would have had little contact with each other, now found themselves in the same boat and had to adapt to a new way of life.