Plan to honour a Polish-born war hero with a memorial in his adopted Scottish home city have received a huge financial boost.
The Polish Government has pledged £18,000 to the General Stanislaw Maczek Trust, taking a project launched by late Angus peer Lord Fraser of Carmyllie closer to its £85,000 target.
The life-size sculpture of General Maczek is to be placed in the courtyard at the entrance to the Edinburgh city chambers.
The general, who made Edinburgh his home for the last 50 years of his life, was Commander of the 1st Polish Armoured Division and appointed by Winston Churchill to defend Scotland’s east coast from potential invasion.
When he died in 1994, aged 102, Lord Fraser represented the UK Government, leading him to launch the campaign for a permanent memorial.
Before his own death in 2013, Lord Fraser had chosen the Polish artist and sculptor Bronislaw Krzysztof to create the statue and the Polish Government pledge takes the fundraising efforts to just under £70,000.
Trustee Katie Fraser, Lord Fraser’s daughter, said: “We are absolutely thrilled with this significant donation from the Polish Government. This support will enable us to commission the sculptor to begin work on the bench while we continue with a final push to secure the rest of the funding.”
