Polish war veteran who took fight to the Nazis

Augustyn Ludovic Lloyd died peacefully at Westmead Care Home, Droitwich.

His funeral was held at Redditch Crematorium on the day that he would have been 89. After his death his family gathered to celebrate his life and reveal the remarkable journey he took from his Polish homeland to his final days in Droitwich.

Mr Lloyd, who was formerly known as Dzida, was born in 1924 in an area of southern Poland called Laka.

After two years of Poland being under Nazi rule, Mr Lloyd heard news of a Polish general forming a regiment which was attached to the 8th British Army in Italy.

He escaped from German control and spent six months crossing Europe so he could join up.

It wasn’t long before Mr Lloyd was involved in the famous battle at Monte Cassino – a battle which saw many of his countrymen killed or injured.

It was during this battle that he too was injured and hospitalised for six months.

Proud son-in-law Alan Bourne said: “The whole experience would remain with Augustyn for the rest of his life and it is only in later years that I managed to get a small amount of information from him.”

After the war, Mr Lloyd came to England, arriving in Liverpool in August 1946. A year later he moved to Birmingham to work and he met his wife-to-be Ellen in the late 1940s. The pair shared a home with her two sons, Jeff and John.

It was at this time that he decided to change his surname from Dzida to Lloyd taking Ellen’s surname as his own. Soon after, Ellen and Mr Lloyd had a daughter, Diane, who was born in 1953.

It wasn’t until 1995 that Mr Lloyd finally decided to visit his old home in Poland.

“It was a very emotional trip and when we arrived at his old school, which was still standing and being used, it was one of the only times that we had seen him get very emotional,” said Mr Bourne. In 2008, the war veteran decided to make Droitwich his home.

He took up residence at Westmead Care Home and became a popular figure until his death on January 15.