Former RSL media adviser decorated with top military award

A former media adviser to a number of RSLs has been decorated by the Polish Government for raising the profile of one of their most famous war heroes.

Archie Mackay, of media2k, was awarded the Polish Military Medal at the highest level of gold by the Minister for the Defence of Poland.

It was presented at a ceremony in Edinburgh by Jaroslaw Mika, the General Commander of the Polish Armed Forced, after the unveiling of a memorial bench to General Stanislaw Maczek.

General Maczek was Commander of the 1st Polish Armoured Division and a hero of the Battle of the Falaise Pocket and a key player in the Allied liberation of France.

After fighting the German invaders of his country he retreated with his men to France and engaged in further battles before France fell and he made his way to Britain. Winston Churchill provided the tanks necessary to establish the 1st Polish Armoured Division and Churchill put General Maczek in charge of the defence of the East Coast of Scotland, fearing invasion would come via the North Sea.

When the Second World War ended General Maczek was unable to return to his native Poland as the Soviet Union had control as part of an allied agreement.

Refused a war pension, he worked as barman in his adopted city of Edinburgh and with his wife raised a son and two daughters. In 1989 the Polish Government issued a public apology to General Maczek and in 1994 he was presented with Poland’s highest state decoration, the Order of the White Eagle. In the same year, he died aged 102.

Lord Fraser of Carmyllie represented the British Government at General Maczek’s funeral and witnessed Polish hussars form an arch of steel as the coffin was leaving the church.

This sparked an interest in the General’s achievements and further research by Lord Fraser led him to conclude that a permanent memorial was long overdue.

A few months before his death in 2013, Lord Fraser revealed details of his plan to raise funds for a bench in bronze that would include a figure of the General to be cast in Poland and then sited near the former Maczek family home in Edinburgh.

Just two days before his death, Lord Fraser won unanimous support from the Friends of the Edinburgh Meadows when he spoke at their annual general meeting.

Lord Fraser’s untimely death stalled the project but his daughter Katie, PR advisor Archie Mackay and lawyer Roddy Harrison established the General Stanislaw Maczek Memorial Trust.

With help from Lady Fraser, the trio raised £85,000 to fund the memorial which due to a planning issue has been sited just off the Royal Mile in the courtyard outside the chambers of the City of Edinburgh Council.

After the unveiling, the three Trustees and Lady Fraser were each presented with the Polish Military Medal at the highest level, gold.

The sculpture was created by Polish artist Bronislaw Krzysztof initially in clay and then cast in bronze.

Archie Mackay said: “It is a superb piece of work and honours not only General Maczek but the many other Polish service personnel who fought for our freedom.

“Seeing the project completed was for me unfinished business. I worked with Lord Fraser on The Holyrood Inquiry into the cost over-runs of the Scottish Parliament and also on other projects.

“The Maczek story fascinated him and he would often reveal new snippets of information he had gathered. We found it astonishing that we had a real hero living in the middle of Edinburgh but very few people knew anything of his achievements.

“Lord Fraser wanted to correct that wrong and now with the help of his family we have achieved his goal. That was very satisfying in itself but to be honoured by the Polish Government for doing it was both unexpected and very humbling.”

Archie worked in the newspaper industry at the highest executive level before launching his own PR company, media2k.

Archie worked with the original Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) communications team, which successfully secured the historic stock transfer vote, headed by Paul Farrell and Ruth Brogan, when Bob Allan was chief executive of GHA and with other friends formed BAPS (Bob Allan’s Pals) to honour the former housing boss after Bob’s untimely death.