August Agboola Browne Freedom-fighting jazzman

escribed as “a strappingly handsome, exceptionally elegant fellow”, August Agboola Browne was over 6 foot tall, a talented jazz musician and a polyglot when he stepped off the ship onto Britain’s shores in 1958. Although he had been born in Lagos, and his arrival coincided with that of the Windrush generation, Browne was not travelling from Nigeria or the Caribbean. For most of his life, he had lived in Poland, where he had often made headlines: for his music, his marriage, and for fighting for his adopted country during the Second World War. [And Browne is in the news again, as documents have recently come to light that seem to tell a different story of his wartime exploits. See page 36.] Despite being among the few to receive postwar recognition as a hero of the Polish resistance, however, he was now emigrating once more, and this time he chose to live so quietly that his incredible story was almost forgotten.