Mieczysław Lubelski was born in Poznań, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1887. After the Second World War he moved to London, England where he studied at Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art (1945–46) and Slade School of Art (1946–49). Established as a monumental sculptor in Poland before arriving to England, Lubelski is most recognised in the UK for his Polish War Memorial at Northolt Aerodrome, West London which was unveiled in 1948.
Monumental sculptor and ceramist Mieczysław Lubelski was born in Poznań, Russian Empire (now Poland) on 30 December 1887. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw between 1906 and 1907 under the tutelage of Neo-Romantic sculptor Xawery Dunikowski. Subsequently, Lubelski became a member of the art group Świt in Poznań from 1921–27, alongside Fryderyk Pautsch and Bronisław Bartel, among others. Around this time Lubelski studied in Berlin, where he met his German wife, Hildegard. Lubelski also began exhibiting his work and creating monumental sculptures in Poznań and Warsaw, as well as designing religious sculptures and gravestones for Warsaw's Jewish cemetery. During the German occupation of Poland (1939–45) he joined the Home Army resistance and worked for an underground ammunition factory during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, after which he was interned in a Nazi labour camp. Following the end of the war and his release, Lubelski moved to England where he studied at Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art (1945–46) and the Slade School of Art (1946–49) under sculptor Alfred Horace Gerrard. Almost all of his public works in Poland were destroyed during the Second World War. However, in 1960 he recreated his Kosciuszko Monument in Liberty Square, central Lodz (1930) which the Germans had destroyed in 1939, while the monument he designed for the grave of L.L. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto, still stands in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery (https://www.flickr.com/photos/12608538@N03/22898597545).
Having previously established himself as a monumental sculptor in Poland prior to the War, and now equipped with his London education in sculpture, it was not long before Lubelski was commissioned to work in his new homeland. His most notable sculpture is the Polish War Memorial at Northolt Aerodrome, west London, unveiled by Lord Tedder in 1948 (subsequently enlarged in 1996) to commemorate the thousands of Polish airmen who flew from Northolt in support of the RAF at the decisive Battle of Britain. The unveiling was attended by August Zaleski, president of the Polish Republic in Exile, General Władysław Anders and a further 3,000 dignitaries and guests. The memorial consists of three stone slabs made from Portland stone, one of which is placed vertically and is topped by a bronze eagle (cast by the renowned Morris Singer Foundry), an emblem of the Polish Air Force. Inscribed in bronze lettering were 1,241 names of Polish airmen lost in action (now 2,165), including in the Battle of Britain, ‘though not those who died in other ways, such as through accidents’ (Simpson, 2015). ‘Every September, hundreds gather at the memorial to pay homage and lay wreaths as part of the annual ceremony commemorating the Polish airmen. Sadly, each year participating veterans get fewer and fewer’ (Gnys, 2018). Polish presidents Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski have both visited the war memorial to a lay a wreath, in 1991 and 2004 respectively. In addition to the Polish War Memorial, Lubelski continued designing and creating headstones in the UK. In 1954, for instance, he created the ceramic relief for a headstone at London’s Brompton Cemetery for Dr. Antoni Kutek, a wartime medical officer on the Polish ocean liner, MS Batory.
Lubelski became a naturalised British citizen in 1959 (London Gazette, August 1959), with an address in Chiswick, west London, and his profession listed as 'sculptor'. His Polish War Memorial was upgraded to a Grade II* listing by Historic England in September 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Mieczysław Lubelski died on 29 April 1965 in England and is buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. His work in the UK public domain is represented by the Polish War Memorial.