Aleksander Werner

He was descended from three generations of artistic tradition, and his family can be traced back to Joseph Werner in a line of recognized Polish painters.

In his time in World War II, Werner trekked from a prison camp in the northern forests of Russia during and joined up with General Anders's Polish Army in the Middle East.

[6] Werner was one of the last surviving beneficiaries of a gentleman's agreement between two serving soldier officers – one English, one Polish – when both were attached to the British Eighth Army.

[7] During his first years in Britain, Werner concentrated on painting and printmaking, and his intricate woodcuts were exhibited in London, Switzerland, Italy and the United States.

In a major solo exhibition of his work from this period, held in the Drian Gallery in London in the early 1970s, he included almost 50 dynamic pieces in fired clay.

This prevented him from pursuing his sculptural creativity but, after a long and determined struggle, he was able to continue his creation of colleges, small paintings and drawings.

It was a personal triumph for him to be able to attend, in his wheelchair, the opening of an exhibition of his work to date at the POSK Gallery (Hammersmith, London) in 2001.