Memory Crafted in Glass and Stone with Kamila Oles

The “Scotland’s Future – Collective Memories in Fostering Unity” project traces shared Scottish–Polish heritage. This lecture, by examining the mosaic as both an artwork and a memory object, invites audiences to explore a lesser-known yet compelling chapter within this history: the story of three young Polish paratroopers who studied at the University of St Andrews during the Second World War. Trained as members of the Polish Section of the British Special Operations Executive (“Silent Unseen”), they combined military skill with remarkable artistic talent, creating a mosaic in Edinburgh that was later installed on the façade of St Andrews Town Hall. Offered as a gesture of gratitude to the town that welcomed and supported them, the mosaic remains one of the most evocative material witnesses to the wartime presence of the Polish Allied Forces in Scotland.

In the decades that followed, when many former soldiers could not publicly acknowledge their identities under communist persecution, the mosaic acquired new meaning. What began as a wartime token of appreciation gradually became a powerful symbol of collective and mediated memory, silently connecting those whose stories could not be spoken aloud. Across generations, it has functioned as a site of remembrance, commemoration, and quiet resistance, preserving bonds between Scotland and the Polish diaspora. The lecture concludes by reflecting on how this mosaic continues to animate public memory, sustain intergenerational bonds, and shape local identity in St Andrews, demonstrating how material culture can hold the past open within the present.

Dr Kamila Oles is an research fellow at the School of English. She is an art historian, archaeologist, and curator specialising in 3D digitisation, advanced digital art history, inclusive and co-curatorial exhibition design, contested memory, art diplomacy, and digital heritage engagement. Her current research focuses on visual language and co-curation of contested memories, working with descendants of African American US Civil War soldiers at Camp Nelson National Monument (Kentucky) while collaborating with National Parks of America Camp Nelson National Monument museum refit and with British descendants of Polish soldiers from the WW2, examining heritage and art as collective and mediated transmitters of memory and inherited trauma.