Witold Gracjan Kawalec
Illustration — Sculpture over the entrance to St Christopher's Hospice Photo by Stephen Craven Witold Gracjan Kawalec (17 November 1922 – 24 December 2003) was a Polish-born sculptor, who worked mainly in England.
Witold Gracjan Kawalec
Stephen Craven · From geograph.org.uk · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Born
- 1922. · Vilnius.
- Died
- 2003. · Crediton.
- Nationality
- Poland.
- Occupation
- artist and sculptor.
- Languages
- Polish.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Sculpture over the entrance to St Christopher's Hospice Photo by Stephen Craven Witold Gracjan Kawalec (17 November 1922 – 24 December 2003) was a Polish-born sculptor, who worked mainly in England.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Witold Gracjan Kawalec. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q8028438 · wikipedia · Witold Gracjan Kawalec
In this article
Early life
Early life
He was born in Wilno, Poland in 1922. Working for the Polish resistance movement during World War II, he was captured by Russian soldiers. Later he joined a Polish Army unit in Palestine. He took part in the bitter fighting at Tobruk during the North Africa campaign. From North Africa he joined the Royal Air Force in England. In 1942 he was accepted for training in the Royal Air Force. While serving near Nottingham he married a fellow Pole in the WRAF, Danuta Banszel. He was then posted to No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron at Exeter.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1922
Witold Gracjan Kawalec was born on 17 November 1922.
2003
Witold Gracjan Kawalec died on 24 December 2003.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Vilnius.
Birth place
Crediton.
Death place
Sculpture
After the war he moved to Nottingham and continued his studies in sculpture at Nottingham College of Art. In 1953 he opened his first studio and produced much of his work in alabaster. The themes of his abstract forms were influenced by his experiences during World War II. In 1959 he had a piece selected for the Royal Academy summer exhibition, and in 1963 his exhibition at the Drian Gallery led to his connection with the hospice movement. His best known work is the sculpture for Dame Cicely Saunders’s St Christopher's Hospice at Sydenham. It shows St Christopher carrying Christ across the water. The sculpture was unveiled by Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy. In 1966 he created sculptures for Revd Kenneth Cook for the tops of the pillars in St. Aidan's Church, Basford, in Nottingham. In 1976 he moved and established a sculpture garden in an orchard near Crediton. He created a statue of St Boniface for Crediton Parish Church.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q8028438: Witold Gracjan Kawalec
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Witold Gracjan Kawalec”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Timesonline.co.uk. Obituaries. November 2015.
- 2.Ten messengers, being carvings of Saint Aidan's Church, Nottingham, by Witold Gracjan Kawalec, 1977 Regency Press (London, New York) ASIN B000S66TC4
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Sculpture
6,174 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Winifred Ann LutzArtist
- Winifred HoltArtist
- Winifred TurnerArtist
- Witness BonjisiArtist
- Witold-KArtist
- Władysław HasiorArtist
- Władysław OleszczyńskiArtist
- Wladyslaw SiwekArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Witold Gracjan Kawalec?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.