Jennifer Mary Nawarska (née O'Brien)

1932–2016

Jennifer, or Jenny as she was known, was born in Bristol in 1932. She lived in Bristol and after the war she finished her convent education and trained as a physiotherapist where she met Bob Nawarski who was training to be a dentist. Jenny decided in 1962 to change her career and retrain to be a dentist.

It was unusual at that time for mature students to choose a second career and Jenny retold the story of her interview for admission to University College Hospital Dental School. She said they gave her a hard time and she offered them the comment that if she said that the only thing that would make her happy was to look down people's throats for the rest of her life would they believe her? She was offered a place and joined a group of younger students with whom she fitted in admirably. Indeed, at times she was the ringleader of 'the gang'. During her time as a student, Jenny and Bob were very generous in their help and hospitality to her student colleagues. Jenny and another student went in 1966 to Berlin on a student exchange and despite collecting a traffic fine they made good friends with a group of Berlin dental students and watched the World Cup and survived the fact that England beat Germany. When Jenny qualified she went to work with Bob in his practice in Rickmansworth where her patients found her to be caring and helpful, and interested in them as people as well as patients. Her passion was playing golf at Moor Park. Even as a student whenever she was missing, it was because she was on the golf course. She was the ladies captain in 1988 and on the board of directors 1991 to 1996. As well as golf she enjoyed travelling with family and friends and entertaining with style!

She was guided by her Catholic faith and led by example; she combined the best of the traditional view of life with an astoundingly modern and contemporary view of the world.

She is sadly missed by her family, Bob died a few weeks after her, and their children Bernard and Sophie along with all their friends and colleagues will remember with fondness her full life.

Stanislaw Robert Wlosok Nawarski

1921–2017

Bob, as he was known, died on the 8 January 2017 aged 95. He was born near Katowice in Poland. He had just commenced his medical training when the Germans invaded. He immediately left to join the army and together with his father (also in the army) fought the invasion but they were captured by the advancing Soviet forces. He luckily escaped from the transport, which was destined for Katyn, thus avoiding the subsequent massacre of thousands of Polish officers. He, along with some other students, found their way to France via Romania, Yugoslavia and Italy. When he reached France he joined the French Air Force and trained as a pilot. After the Germans invaded France he reached Gibraltar and from there onto northern Africa. He arrived in England by boat in July 1940, joined the Polish Air Force under British Command, initially flying Hurricanes, then moving onto Spitfires. He flew many sorties over France, based mainly in RAF Northolt. On June 6 1944 he flew cover for the D-Day landings for 302 Squadron. He flew 178 sorties in total and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Polish Cross of Valour with two bars and the Polish Air Force Medal. After the war he became an instructor and test pilot and was finally released to continue his studies in 1948.

He commenced his dental course at the University of Bristol where he became a fine bridge player, with winnings helping to fund him at university. He played golf and flew gliders, and met his future wife Jennifer O'Brien, who at the time was a physiotherapist, but who later qualified as a dentist.

Bob had a practice in Mill End, close to Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. He worked there, some of the time with Jennifer as well, for over 50 years. When he retired he carried on gliding, playing golf and skiing at every opportunity. In his later years he was forced to give up the physical pursuits but managed to remain relatively mobile until shortly before his death from a short illness. At his funeral, after a Spitfire flypast, it was announced that Bob had been posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order Restituta by the General Consul of the Polish Embassy in London.

Flight Lieutenant Bob Nawarski is survived by his son, an anaesthetist, his daughter, a physiotherapist, and his six grandchildren.