Felicjan Sławoj Skladkowski (1885-1962)
One of two Polish Prime Ministers remembered in the cemetery.
General Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski
General Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski was the last Prime Minister of Poland before the Second World War. He also has the dubious honour of giving his name to a type of Polish toilet!
Prime Minister
Składkowski trained as a surgeon in Krakow, and worked in medicine until the outbreak of the First World War. He served as a doctor with the Polish Legions, and later became a senior figure in military medicine. After the May Coup in 1926, when the Polish government was overthrown, Składkowski joined the new government as Minister of the Interior, then Deputy Minister of War. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1931 and, five years later, became Prime Minister.
Life in London
During his time in office, the General was passionately committed to improving sanitation in his country, particularly in rural areas. He ordered that every household should have a working toilet – even if it was outside. As a result, the nickname for an outside loo in Poland is still a ‘Sławojki’.
When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Składkowski fled the country and resigned as prime minister. After periods in Romania, Turkey and Palestine, where he was a military envoy, he came to London in 1947. There he played an active part in the Polish community in exile, until his death fifteen years later.
Składkowski was buried in Brompton Cemetery, which was very popular with the Polish community in LonLife in Londondon. In 1990, his body was repatriated to Poland.
Tomasz Arciszewski (1877-1955), Prime Minister of Poland’s government-in-exile during the Second World War, is also buried in the cemetery.