Among the Polish contributions to the war effort, the 307 Night Fighter Squadron known as the Lw\u00f3w Eagle Owls was based at RAF Exeter<\/a> and played a critical role in defending the city during the 1942 blitz.<\/p>\n November 1941: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965). (Photo by Walter Stoneman\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n However, the number of people living at Ilford Park has now dwindled, and its owner the Ministry of Defence has begun a consultation on its future.<\/p>\n One Polish family said any move to close the home would cause \u2018a deep sense of betrayal\u2019. Czes\u0142aw Siegieda told the Express that his mother Helena had described the home as \u2018heaven on earth\u2019 during her time there from 2012 until she died in 2016.<\/p>\n She was depor\u00adted from Poland to Siberia during the war and spent time in a labour camp before coming to Ilford Park. Her father had served under Brit\u00adish com\u00admand as an artil\u00adlery\u00adman.<\/p>\n Ilford Park opened in 1948 at Stover Camp, a hospital which had been built in anticipation of American casualties suffered during the invasion of Normandy in 1944. At its peak it hosted 600 Poles in basic barrack blocks and a shared central hall.<\/p>\n The original care home on the site fell into disrepair and a new one was opened in 1992. The new care home has Pol\u00adish-speak\u00ading work\u00aders along with a Pol\u00adish priest. Pol\u00adish food is served to res\u00adid\u00adents while national hol\u00adi\u00addays are cel\u00adeb\u00adrated. The home can cater for up to 95 residents, but it currently houses just 40.<\/p>\n The MoD consultation says the numbers have been declining steadily in recent years. coronavirus<\/a> >Covid<\/a> led to a higher death rate in 2020\/2021 and new arrival numbers remain low, partly due to the tight entry criteria.<\/p>\n A report by the MoD adds: \u201cCensus 2021 data suggests that there were around 3,800 Polish nationals aged over 76 in the UK in March 2021. This will have reduced since then, and only a fraction of the remaining number will meet the eligibility criteria, so potential future resident numbers are small.\u201d<\/p>\n The MoD has already begun a campaign to encourage anyone eligible to move to the home to do so, but it has also made contingency plans to work with the charity sector and the local authority to source alternative accommodation for the remaining residents if required, funded by the MoD.<\/p>\n The report adds: \u201cWhere possible, there should be an attempt by the new provider to recreate the Poland-specific nature of the Ilford Park Polish Home.\u201d<\/p>\n The next step will be a review of occupancy next year with closure expected by 2028 – the 80th anniversary of its opening – if there are not enough people living there to support a \u2018viable community\u2019.<\/p>\n The MoD has pledged to rehouse res\u00adid\u00adents should it close. It said: \u201cWe are try\u00ading to increase res\u00adid\u00adency. Sadly, with time, num\u00adbers inev\u00adit\u00adably fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Consultation is due to end on June 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of Devon\u2019s \u2018Little Poland\u2019 – the country\u2019s last remaining \u2018hostel\u2019 for Polish veterans who served alongside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2490,2492,2488,2491,2493,9,2489],"class_list":["post-3056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-armed-forces","tag-exeter","tag-housing","tag-ministry-of-defence","tag-newton-abbot","tag-poland","tag-teignbridge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_3277071.jpg\")
<\/p>\n