Halszka Wasilewska, sometimes called Halina, (21 March 1899 – 8 February 1961), WW2 nom-de-guerre Krystyna, was one of the first women to attain the rank of Major in the Polish Armed Forces.

After liberation she rose to the rank of Major of the Women's forces in General Maczek's 1st Armoured Division in postwar Germany.

Her father, who originally came from the Polish community in Saint Petersburg, met his future wife, Wanda, at Lwów University where they were both students.

He and his wife lived in Leytonstone between 1898 and 1903 in a house called "Lingwood", where many leading Polish activists would meet and where Piłsudski stayed after his escape from St.

[4][5] Halszka was born on board a Tilbury-bound ship as her parents were returning home from a European trip and her birth was registered in London.

After her father was recalled back to mainland Europe in 1903, prior to the 1905 Russian Revolution and the Polish insurrection of that year, the family left England and went to Galicia, but first to Vienna then to Kraków where Halszka spent the rest of her childhood and where her two younger sisters, Wanda and Zofia Aldona were born.

She went on to Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów, her parents' Alma mater, completing course work in Philosophy to gain an Absolutorium, without collecting her degree.

[6] After the outbreak of the First World War, she served in the medical corps of the Polish Legion Brigade in Jabłonkowo, in Kęty, Galicia and in Vienna.

She later assumed command of the 2nd Battalion of the Women's Army Service in Meppen, Germany with the 1st Armoured Division headed by General Maczek.

She stayed initially in London and was subsequently located at "Ontario" resettlement camp in Shropshire, then moved to the Women's Allied Forces hostel in Claverley from where she was finally demobilised.