Tribute to Felix Moriz, 1921-2010

Here is an appreciation of Felix from his friend and local historian, Charlie Todd:

"Born Felix Moriz in Borynia, which was then just inside the border of southern Poland but is now in northern Ukraine, on May 18, 1921, Felix volunteered for the Polish Army just before the outbreak of WWII.

For Poland, the war was a short one, starting on September 1 and ending in surrender on September 19.

As a member of the 2nd Line Battalion Home Defence (the 1st Line Battalion were the Polish Regular Army), Felix and many of his

colleagues chose to escape across the Hungarian border.

During their six month stay there the Poles were issued with papers from the Polish Embassy in Budapest which enabled them to travel through Yugoslavia to the post of Split (in modern day Croatia) where they boarded a Polish ship for France.

Docking firstly at Toulon, then Marseilles they were taken to the town of Coqecdan in Northern France. As we all know the German Blitzkrieg

tactics again swept all before them in France which surrendered after 40 days fighting in June 1940.

Again the Poles were evacuated by ship, this time on a small British liner to the UK, docking firstly at Liverpool but disembarking at Plymouth.

They then boarded a train for Glasgow Central, marched to St Enoch Station and, after a short stopover in Coatbridge, arrived in Symington on June 13, 1940 where they were accommodated temporarily in a tented encampment.

The fighting in Continental Europe was over for the Army at that point but Free Polish Forces had at their disposal three destroyers and one submarine from their own fleet which had escaped the clutches of the Nazis.

Manning them, and such planes as had escaped, could have an immediate benefit, therefore volunteers were requested to transfer into the Polish Navy and Air Force.

Felix volunteered to move to the Navy. Eventually, in addition to their own ships (one of which was lost on the Narvik Raid in Norway), Poles manned several other vessels loaned to them by the Royal Navy.

And so it was for the next four years that Felix served in the engine room of various destroyers of the Polish Navy, but principally the ORP Piorun on escort duty with the convoys criss-crossing the Atlantic and trying to outwit or destroy the U-boat menace.

He was also involved in Mediterranean convoys supplying the British 8th Army (The Desert Rats) in North Africa, and twice on the worst route of all to the Russian port of Murmansk on the Barents Sea.

Felix always declined to say anything about his experiences during those years but I imagine it would be along the lines of those contained in that excellent novel "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monserrat which dealt with convoy duties on those routes.

For his efforts he was awarded the Polish Cross of Merit (awarded for

saving lives at sea), the Polish Navy Medal and, from the UK, the 1939-45 Star, the Atlantic Star, the Africa Star and the Defence Medal together with a medal finally awarded by the USSR 40 years after the end of the war to recognise the heroism of the men involved in the Russian Convoys.

Incidentally, the two surviving destroyers and the submarine were handed back to Poland in 1948 since despite everything that had happened they were still Polish property.

Demobbed in 1947, Felix could not return to his homeland which was by this time in the grip of the Communists. Liking this area Felix decided to settle in the Upperward.

His first job was briefly with Chucky Prentice at his garage in Symington, then over the next 39 years with Davie Dargie, the Thankerton coal merchant, Malcolm Tait's tomato houses in Perryflatts Road, Thankerton, Tam Brown at Lockhart Mill Farm and tomato houses near Lanark and Wullie Russell's tomato houses in Carnwath.

Finally, he worked as a council quarryman at Cairngryffe Quarry for 15 years until his retiral in 1986.

Felix lived for a while at Thornbank Cottage, Thankerton, but for some years he had been on the lookout for more permanent accommodation.

In the late 1950s/early 1960s he did some odd jobs for the Laird at Carmichael, Sir Wyndham Carmichael-Anstruther, whom he persuaded in 1962 to allow him to live at the Kennels Cottages — rent free if he paid the rates and did his own repairs — which is where he lived for the rest of his life.

For a time both before and after his retiral, it flourished as a part time market garden renowned in particular for its strawberries and daffodils.

Felix was still fluent in his native tongue partly through attending the Polish Club in Glasgow where he met and married Diana in 1972.

Diana is originally from Leicester but moved to Glasgow with her first husband who was also a Pole, hence the connection. Over the years Felix had been able to visit his homeland on a few occasions, particularly after things eased slightly with Stalin's death in 1953.

A sad postscript to Felix's story was that, while he was in Wishaw General Hospital during his final illness, heartless thieves broke into his home and stole his hard-won war medals.

Thankfully, he went to his rest not knowing about this particularly cruel and heartless theft.''

Felix is survived by his beloved wife Diana. His funeral service was held at Holytown Crematorium on July 26.