Jozef Stanislaw Edward Ponikiewski

1935 enrolled in the Naval Cadet School in Torun.
After graduating, he remained in the navy and served on ORP Grom as the third artillery officer.
The ship was withdrawn to the United Kingdom on 30 August 1939 as part of the Beijing Plan. There, Ponikiewski became adjutant (with the rank of lieutenant in the navy – 3 May 1941) to General Władysław Sikorski. (possibly also his body guard).
4 July 1943 RAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator AL523 511 Sqn. Crashed into the sea 16 seconds after taking off from Gibraltar Airport at 23:07 hours returning to London from an inspection of Polish forces deployed in the Middle East.
He was buried in 28 July 1943 at the cemetery in Newark-upon-Trent.

In December 2010, as part of the investigation of the Institute of National Remembrance, officers killed in the Gibraltar crash were exhumed for examination at the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow. After the examinations, on 7 December 2010, the funeral of Capt Jozef Ponikiewski took place. His remains were buried in the basement of the family chapel in Oporów.

He was posthumously awarded the Silver Cross of Merit with Swords and the Naval Medal. On 1 December 2010, he was also posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta Polish.