In May 1941, Welsh farmer Bertie Griffiths dragged Wladyslaw Kiedrynski out of the freezing cold waters around Ramsey Island off the west cost of Wales after the Polish pilot had to ditch his Hurricane in the sea.
The submerged aircraft was discovered in 1996 by diver and historian Steve Jones who, after more than 20 years of research, managed to learn that the pilot had changed his name to Richard Anderson and died in Jersey in the 1990s.
After publishing an appeal in the JEP last year to help search for his relatives, Mr Anderson’s daughter Laura Ahier contacted Mr Jones.
And at the end of last month she travelled to Wales, with her family to meet Mr Jones as well as Bertie’s daughter-in-law Melba and her family, who still live near Ramsey Island.
‘We went to see Steve Jones and he took us on a drive to St David’s to meet Melba Griffiths, whose father-in-law saved my dad,’ said Mrs Ahier.
‘Her son Ian’s girlfriend has a boat and they just happened to be there and were able to take us out to the Island. We were there with my son and daughter and with Melba and her two sons.
‘We looked around the site where my father came down and where he would have been picked up by Bertie Griffiths. It was an emotional day and very, very interesting and great to meet the family of the man who saved my dad’s life.
‘We also visited the museum where parts of my dad’s Hurricane are kept and we visited Bertie Griffiths’ grave.’
Mrs Ahier said that thanks to the JEP article, she had made some ‘very good friends’ in Steve and Melba.
She added that after posting details of her father’s past on a Polish history website she had been contacted by relatives on her father’s side of the family.
‘I have gotten in contact with my dad’s brother’s grandson in Poland, who is 48-years-old – so around the same age as me,’ she said.
‘He had been searching for me for as long as Steve had been doing research and got in contact through the Polish website.
‘We want to go back to Wales again, hopefully when the weather is better, but the next step for me is to get to know my dad’s family better.’
Mr Jones said that meeting Laura was the ‘icing on the cake’ after all the research he had done on the crashed Hurricane.
‘The best thing would have been to meet him Wladyslaw Kiedrynski in person but to meet Laura was the next best thing,’ he said.
‘The JEP has really been at the hub of this and if it wasn’t for your interest this wouldn’t have happened.’
He added: ‘The most poignant part of the visit was when Laura laid flowers at the grave of Bertie Griffiths.’
