Jan Kaluski was born in Poland in 1924 and began collecting stamps in 1933, continuing until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.[3]
World War II
Kaluski joined the Polish Army in the West in 1941, after arriving in Scotland via Persia, Palestine, Egypt and South Africa. He took part in the D-Day landings as a sapper and carried out mine-clearing work in the Netherlands. He was awarded the Cross of Valour. After the war he settled in the United Kingdom where he lived for the rest of his life.[1]
Later life
Kaluski restarted his stamp collection in the early 1950s and spent the following fifty years expanding it.
He was reported as saying that he wished to donate his collection to the British people as a way of thanking them for welcoming him to Britain.[4]