A simple dedication to the former community of first generation Lithuanians that settled in Eccles and Patricroft from the late 1940s and 1950s.
Mr. Vladas Kupstys (1912-1982) leading members of Eccles and Patricroft Lithuanian Community at the Remembrance Sunday Commemorations in 1959.
A brief introduction into the story of the community, following the end of WW2, the once independent nations of the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) were then under Russian occupation and forcefully annexed into the Soviet Union. Thousands of their citizens that had already been displaced during the war, were now living in special camps run by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).
With little hope of returning to their homeland, they had no alternative but to make a new life for themselves in Western Europe, Australia and the American continent.
The vast majority that came to Britain, were part of "Operation Westward Ho" and "Balt Cygnet" These schemes by the British Government were initiated to fill the shortage of workers within the United Kingdom and help put the country back on its feet in this time of austerity.
Of course, in this particular time period there were ample employment opportunities in the Eccles and Patricroft area, with Engineering firms such as L.Gardner and Sons, Mitchell and Shackleton, W. H. Bailey as well as the Royal Ordenance Factory, also other manufacuring companys like Ward and Goldstone and several weaving and cotton mills and just a stone throw away was the Trafford Park industrial estate.
Below images of the Remembrance Sunday Commemorations 1968
Photographer Mr. George Shepherd
As part of a Lithuanian exhibition held at Monks Hall Museum in 1967, here we see Mr. Kazimieras Steponavicius in the dark suit standing behind his constructed model of a Lithuanian farmhouse.
Another photo from the same exhibition displaying typical fabric designs used in Lithuanian National Dress.
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