Wymeswold Airfield was opened in 1942 as an operational training unit for Bomber Command.  Most of the domestic and living accommodation sites lay to the south of the airfield within the parish of Burton on the Wolds.  The majority of the buildings were of light timber-frame construction covered with plaster board and felt with a corrugated asbestos roof.  Interspersed among them were a number of corrugated metal Nissen huts.  None of the buildings were intended for long term use yet, in 1948, they became home to Polish ex-service men and their families. As in all ex-army camps the conditions were somewhat primitive.  The RAF lavatories and washing facilities were brought back into use and several families were lodged in each hut with blanket partitions providing a minimum of privacy.

The camp had a surgery and sickbay initially run by doctors Haszkiewicz and Szymkiewicz later joined by dr. Siepracki and nurse Władysława Wiedlińska

Children from the camp attended local English schools during the week and on Saturday mornings they went to the camp's Saturday School where they learned about Polish history, culture and traditions as well as to read and write Polish.  When the Saturday school opened it had 40 pupils, the head teacher was Mr. Kazimierz Pagacz with teachers Franciszek Malik and Zygmunt Żyliński.  Mr. Pagacz also directed productions of the amateur dramatic group. There was a nursery school for the youngest run by Mrs. Zawadzka and Renia Sidorowicz.  The camp's social and cultural activities were run by a camp committee that was elected annually.

Saturday School Children in National Dress performing on stage.

The stage sets show views of the Old Town in Kraków and were painted by Julian Schott, a gifted artist from Kraków

Fr. Kiwiński looked after the spiritual needs of this community; preparing children for their First Holy Communion, providing Religious education, officiating at marriages, christenings, funerals, religious festivals and rituals.

A significant event in the life of the camp was a visit, in 1948, by Gen. Bór-Komorowski who at that time was Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile in London.  The General enjoyed enormous respect in the Polish community as commander of the Underground Home Army (AK) and the heroic 1944 Warsaw Rising. 

One of the residents greeting the General was Mr. Franciszek Malik.  In September 1939 he fought, first against the Germans then the Soviets, as a lieutenant in the Polish infantry.  Following defeat in the September campaign he was arrested by the Soviet NKVD and imprisoned in Russia.  After Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 he joined the Polish Army formed under Gen. Anders and left the USSR with the army in 1942 to reinforce British forces in the Middle East.  He volunteered to join the "Cichociemni" (Dark and Silent) special forces unit which was being formed in England with the objective of providing support, supplies and liaison to the Home Army (AK) in Poland which was pursuing a campaign of sabotage and diversion against the German occupation forces.  The Cichociemni unit worked closely with Britain's SOE (Special Operations Executive).  He was enrolled into the AK in the rank of Captain under the pseudonym "Piorun" and parachuted into Warsaw in July 1944, just before the start of The Uprising, and went on to command the Zaremba-Piorun battalion throughout The Rising.  After the Rising fell at the beginning of October he was held as a prisoner of War in Lamsdorf, Sandbostel and Lubec.  Among other decorations Cpt. Malik received Poland's highest order for valour the "Virtuti Militari" as well as Britain's "King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom".

In Burton Polish Camp, Franciszek Malik served for many years as a volunteer teacher in the Saturday School and Hon. Chairman of the Camp's Management Committee.

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