Mieczyslaw Churchal

Aircraft hand General Duties. Enlisted Polish Air Force 21/7/1943, from Lwów, then Eastern Poland. Would have been captured by the Russians during their invasion of Poland 1939 and at some point deported in to the Gulag Labour Camps system. Released under the Sikorski-Mayski agreement, making his way to Iran, then Palestine, then to the UK with others more suitable to the PAF than the Polish Army 2 Corp that stayed in the Middle East fighting across it and then into Italy. Died of a self inflicted gun shot to the heart at RAF Faldingworth. Buried at Newark Cemetery 29/3/1945. Born 23/10/1922 Lwow, Poland. Inquest held at Market Rasen by Coroner, Captain R H Helmer. Polish Military Policeman Sgt Alojzy Bryze stated he had stopped an unknown cyclist at RAF Faldingworth, he had got away but dropped his cycle and 4 loaves of bread. This followed reports of stolen bread from the NAFFI. The police patrol went to an area of unoccupied huts and Polish Military Policeman LAC Stanislaw Sulma forced a barricaded door. On entering the hut Mieczyslaw Churchal was standing in a corner holding a Sten Gun. He smiled at Sulma before firing a shot into his own chest. Mieczyslaw Churchal had been arrested 3 weeks earlier but had escaped out of a lavatory window while under guard and had be AWOL since that day. Medical Officer Stanislaw Michalski stated near the bunk were pinup photographs of women all with their heads removed. He said from a phycological point of view they seemed to show 'the possession of a rather criminal tendency'. Verdict suicide.

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