Zofia Grobicka

ZOFIA MARIA GROBICKA (nee Siemienska)

Born 9 November 1922
Born in Zytno, Poland, eldest child of Jacek Siemienski (born 1888) and Ewa Wielowiejska (herba Polkozic, z Lubczy).

Zytno was a large estate with several hundred hectares under rye and wheat, a stud of thoroughbred horses, and 2000 hectares of forest. Not far from Radomsko, about 40 km from Czestochowa.

Three younger brothers, Leonard born 1925, Stefan born 1927, and Andrzej born 1929.
Her beloved pet dog Barry was a St Bernard.
Her father, Jacek Siemienski, became a member of the Sejm (Polish Parliament) in 1929, travelling regularly to Warsaw.

Sent to a girls’ boarding school in Szymanow, the convent of the Niepokalanek. Made many close friends, and at the end of her second-last year of school, in June 1939, she was voted to become head girl in her final year.

August 1939
German invasion of Poland. School did not reopen due to the danger. Zosia stayed at home and continued her studies at home with governess. Germans closed all schools and universities throughout Poland. Zosia’s mother Ewa opened the house to many refugees who fled to the area and were housed at Zytno. Underground school organised in Zytno with courses being taught by various qualified refugees. A number of British paratroopers who landed in the forest found refuge in Zytno after landing.

March 1942
Germans took over Zytno as local headquarters, officers billeted there while family was confined to certain rooms. Great-aunt continued to practise the pianos – one downstairs in the morning, the other upstairs in the afternoon.
Zosia went to Warsaw, studied at night in an illegal underground college in order to start underground university studies. Trained as a nurse and was inducted into the Resistance – the AK or Armja Krajowa (national army).

August 1944
Warsaw Uprising. Zosia worked at night as a nurse, and during the day acted as a courier, transferring messages and money between different units of the AK, operating in various parts of Warsaw, risking capture by the Germans at every step. Her fluent German and quick thinking frequently helped her to avoid this fate. The Germans were bombing and methodically destroying Warsaw with great ferocity. One night, coming off night shift with the other nurses, Zosia decided to attend early morning mass, rather than returning with them to their dormitory. On returning there after mass, she found that the building where they slept had been bombed, and all her companions sleeping there had been killed. She continued to fight. Escaping down into the sewers, a bomb exploded and knocked her off the ladder, breaking her leg. Coming out of the sewers, she had to drag herself with her broken leg across a cabbage field, and took shelter in a flat at the edge of the city.

Zosia’s beloved brother Stefan was killed fighting against Germans (tragically, hostilities between German patrols and Polish resistance were slowing significantly at the time, and ceased soon after). He was shot in the forest, near Krzepin, wearing a sheepskin coat. The first family member to identify him was ‘Didi’ Siemienska (later Sapieha).
Zosia returned to Zytno in November 1944. On arrival in Radomsko in the early morning, exhausted and with her leg badly set so having difficulty walking, she had no way to contact her parents and no way of reaching Zytno. She decided to attend early mass at the church. There she found her father, who was returning home and had decided to stop to attend mass there. This was another incident which contributed to her deep belief and faith in God's goodness. Whenever possible she attended mass daily throughout her life.

November 1945
As a consequence of the Land Reform Act, the local communist authorities gave the Siemienski family 48 hours to leave Zytno, with all their possessions on the back of a horse-drawn cart. They were directed to go to Wroclaw, where they were given a small flat from where a German family had recently been dispossessed. Zosia took a job to help support the family, and clandestinely joined the underground organisation “Wolnosc I Niepodleglosc” (Freedom and Independence) which continued the tradition of resistance, turning it against the Russian occupation of Poland and the communist authorities.

May? 1946
Escaped from Wroclaw in return load of empty crates, which had contained medical supplies transported into Poland by Red Cross truck. The refugees were a group of a 12 including a baby that wanted to cry at a checkpoint, crossing over into Austria.

May 1946
Arrived in Naples. Zosia got a nursing job with the Red Cross, on recommendation from General Anders (whose family had taken ‘refuge’ in Zytno for most of the war)
Met Jerzy Grobicki, a major in the Polish Arm of the British Army occupying Italy, and demobilising the Italian troops.
First date (trip) to the Isle of Capri and saw the Blue Grotto.
Went to Paris with Jerzy and got engaged. When they went up the Eiffel Tower together, Zosia experienced vertigo and did not want to get out of the lift! Jerzy wrote to Zosia’s father, who agreed to the engagement. Jerzy then bought a vehicle (together with Wladek Wincza) to drive to Poland to fetch his mother and brother (Wojtek) and bring them to the West. The vehicle turned out to be stolen, so when they were stopped at a checkpoint they were detained. He then waited for them at the German-Polish border.
In the meantime, Zosia had agreed to wait for Jerzy in Paris, in order to get married there. While waiting, she shared a flat with two kind girls. When Jerzy did not arrive, she left Paris for London, where she enrolled at a secretarial college to learn shorthand and typing, as well as studying English.

1947
Married Jerzy Grobicki in Islington, London (11 October 1947). They went to the Isle of Wight on honeymoon. Initially had some plans to emigrate to Algeria, in order to farm there.

1948
Emigrated to Tanganyika (now Tanzania).

20 August 1948 – Eva Theresa Maria born in Lushoto, Usumbara Highlands east of Arusha, Tanganyika
Godparents : Wladek Wincza and Bronka Brochwicz

30 September 1949 – Thaddeus Stephen Anthony born in Moshi, Tanganyika
Godparents :
Zosia started to work at the Tanganyika Coffee Growers’ Association.

1950 – Babcia arrived (Jozefa Grobicka, nee Ciechomska) from Canada, to live with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
Incident of the python – the family were seated at the dining table, in an alcove of the sitting room. A kitten was sleeping in one of the armchairs. Eva was pointing at the head of a snake, rising up above the chair, looking down at the kitten. Grown-ups finally realised the danger. Zosia grabbed Ted, Babcia grabbed Eva and they ran outside. Jerzy and the gardener attacked the snake with pangas, killed it and disposed of it.

1955
Moved to Kwetu Farm, Limuru, Kenya (212 acres, situated at about 7500 feet. Zosia described it as too high for coffee, too low for tea. On the edge of the Tribal Trust Land (TTL). The house was on a slope and Mount Kilimanjaro could be seen from the front verandah. Jerzy joined the Kenyan police reserve. Started with Friesland and Ayrshire cows, gradually built up a dairy herd of 120 Guernsey cows yielding high butter-fat milk. A champion Ayrshire cow was the highest yielding cow in Kenya of that breed. Some maize being grown. Also diversified into pig-farming : two hundred pigs, being bred for bacon and top graded pork. Then diversified into poultry, which became the mainstay of the farm. Chickens, eggs. Day-old ducklings were being imported and grown up for resale. Then flowers grown for export – amaryllis and gladiolis. Also mushrooms, being grown in the cellar underneath the house.
Zosia started working in Nairobi as book-keeper and office manager for Stirling Astaldi. (a joint venture between a British firm, Stirling, and an Italian firm, Astaldi – consulting engineers and contractors, building roads, bridges and dams). Drove 15 miles into Nairobi every morning with Eva and Ted, dropped them at school (Parklands Primary), did some farm deliveries, and then went to work. On this 30 minute trip, the road dropped 2000 feet between Limuru and Nairobi along a seriously winding road, and to stop the children getting carsick, she told Ted and Eva the whole narrative of Siekiewicz trilogy (Ogniem I Mieczem, Potop, Pan Wolodyjowski). Although children needed to be picked up by 5.15 pm, she often worked later and the children were taken to the police station to wait for her. Babcia ran the house, grew vegetables and organised meals.
The farm produce delivered included double thick cream (to the New Stanley Hotel), vegetables, strawberries, plums, eggs, ducklings and chickens, also geese and turkeys (primarily for the Christmas market).

April 1960 – Anna Maria Wanda born in Nairobi, Kenya
Godparents : Adam Pettifer and Eva Grobicki
Zosia stopped working in Nairobi before Ania’s birth, and stayed on the farm.

January 1961 – Eva started boarding school at Kenya Girls High School in Nairobi.

January 1962 – Ted started boarding school at Prince of Wales High School (designed by Herbert Baker) in Nairobi

1962 – Jerzy bought a 48-acre farm (Fairview Farm) in Beaconhurst, just outside East London, South Africa

May 1963 – Jerzy Grobicki died of a sudden heart attack, on the road from Nairobi to Limuru. Buried in Nairobi at Karen Cemetary.
Zosia had to sell the dairy herd and wind up the farm business.

Early 1964 – moved from Kwetu Farm to a house on the Ngong Road
Zosia started work at Shell as a book-keeper, and in an administrative position. When they heard that she was planning the move to South Africa, they offered her a transfer to Shell head office in London. A letter written by Jerzy specifically stated that in the event of his death, he wished the family to move to South Africa.

December 1964 – sailed from Mombasa to East London
In East London, Ania had to climb through the bathroom window to get into the farmhouse at Fairview, as the keys were not available (she was the only one small enough to get through).
In 1965 Zosia took a job as a bookkeeper at Malcomess Motors, while Ted went to boarding school in King William's Town, at Dale College. Eva went into her final year of school at Cambridge High School, where she earned the nickname "the wild woman from Kenya" because she rode to school on a 50cc motorbike. Ania started school at the Sacred Heart Convent. Babcia kept house on the farm, and planted a large vegetable garden. There were already many fruit trees, including guavas, pawpaw trees and a large loquat tree.

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See Life in South Africa