My grandfather

I was delighted this morning to find that my cousin Teresa from London (Ontario) had sent me three digitised photographs of our grandfather Piotr Bortnik. He was a forestry manager, having studied at the agricultural academy in Dublany, then spending his professional career looking after the forest estates of Kamil de Pourbaix in Horodziec.

Above: A splendidly evocative photograph, laden with nostalgia and historical symbolism - woven into the nation-myth. The river - somewhere in Wołyń on the eastern borders of pre-war Poland. Beyond - the endless steppes of Russia. These are the Kresy. 'O rycerstwie z nadkresowych stanic', we'd sing around the campfire in Polish scouts; the lost lands of Poland's eastern Marches.

Left: The best portrait of my grandfather as a young man. He is in the uniform of a leśniczy (forester); maybe a graduation photo after completing his studies at Dublany. Working for a private forestry owner rather than the state, he'd not have worn such a uniform while at Horodziec.

This pic is a scan of a printed photograph that would have appeared in a publication, such as a yearbook from the agricultural academy.

Right: This is the best-known photograph of my grandfather, taken in Horodziec before the outbreak of WWII (winter of 1938-39?). He is with his dog As ('Ace'), a pointer (German shorthaired pointer?). I remember this photo from childhood, my main reaction to it being surprise at the winter setting, snow being such a rarity in London.

Piotr Bortnik died in Kazakhstan in 1943 of typhoid fever. He is buried there. A plaque commemorating him is on my grandmother's grave in Bystrzyca Kłodzka, south-west Poland.