George Zarnecki

[1] Using forged documents Zarnecki escaped to Vichy France and thence into Franco's Spain where he was interned for a year before being allowed to go to England.

[3] He spent time compiling an index of the cultural losses that Poland was suffering as a result of the German invasion.

Zarnecki was later awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the Polish Cross of Valor (two bars)[4] for his military service.

[1][2][3] After the war, Zarnecki stayed on in England and in 1945 attained a position as assistant at the Courtauld Institute of Art's Conway library.

[5] Whilst at the Courtauld he studied for his PhD, under the supervision of Fritz Saxl director of the Warburg Institute, University of London.

In 1949 Zarnecki was promoted to librarian of the Courtauld's Conway library, taking charge of its collection of photographs of sculpture and architecture.

During the academic year 1960 to 61 he held the position of Oxford University's Slade Professor of Fine Art.

[1] Zarnecki was widely expected to be appointed director but he did not apply for the position, preferring instead to return to academic teaching and research, and supervising doctoral dissertations including work by Deborah Kahn.