Fawley Court, former Divine Mercy College, viewed from the River Thames
Divine Mercy College is a former Roman Catholic independent secondary boarding school for boys in the English county of Buckinghamshire.
It was co-founded in 1953 by rev. Józef Jarzębowski of the Marian Fathers with lay members of the Polish community in Great Britain with the intention of providing an education that combined a British curriculum with Polish language, culture and history for the children of Polish displaced persons resettled in the United Kingdom. A Charitable foundation was formed to purchase, with a mortgage, the Grade I listed 17th-century country house with out-buildings and a park designed by Capability Brown on the banks of the River Thames.[1] The property had been used by the British Army during the Second World War and had been vacated since.
The school was housed in purpose-built blocks in the grounds of Fawley Court, just outside Henley-on-Thames. The main house in neoclassical style, sometimes attributed to Christopher Wren, with interiors by James Wyatt was used for the library, a museum, the chapel and refectory and kitchens with administrative offices on the upper floors. The teaching staff consisted of lay women and men - some of them university teachers from pre-war Poland - and the small community of exiled Polish Marian fathers headed initially by Jarzębowski (1897-1964), also a writer, historian and Antiquarian. The name of the school was inspired by its first headmaster's devotion to the Divine Mercy of Jesus.[2]
Although pupils were mainly of Polish descent, there were others who were from British families or the sons of foreign diplomats. Pupils sat British public examinations and a number went on to universities in England or abroad. After the early death of Jarzębowski, the following rector was a war veteran and writer, fr. Andrzej Janicki MIC.[3] Over the years the school and its attractive setting had become a popular destination for the Polish community in Southern England, especially on religious feast days.[4]
With the general fall in school rolls during the mid-1980s, Divine Mercy College did not escape the decline and was obliged to finally close its doors to pupils in 1986.[5] The college became a conference and retreat centre for the next 20 years or so.
The property was sold after a unilateral decision by the Marian Fathers in 2010 despite controversy, lawsuits and an extended campaign to save the Grade I listed asset and its valuable museum collection for the newly greatly expanding Polish community in the UK, following Poland's accession to the European Union.[6][7][8][9]
^Historic England. "Name: FAWLEY COURT (DIVINE MERCY COLLEGE) (1125740)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
^Short biography of Fr. Jarzębowski in Polish on the Marian Fathers' website: http://www.marianie.pl/index.php?page=pages&text=27&sub=53 Retrieved 18 June 2018
^Obituary of Father Andrzej Janicki, 2009: http://www.padrimariani.org/en/resources/news/3956.html Archived 2018-06-15 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 17 June 2018
^Fawley Court website in Polish: http://www.fawleycourt.info Archived 2017-10-13 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 15 June 2018
^The 1988 Education Reform Act assessed by the Policy Studies Institute http://www.psi.org.uk/publications/archivepdfs/Recent/CENLOC4.pdf Archived 2016-03-27 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 18 June 2018
^Historic England. "Name: FAWLEY COURT (DIVINE MERCY COLLEGE) (1125740)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
^The Save Fawley Court Heritage Committee: Letter to the Superior General of the Marian Fathers. http://www.fawleycourt.info/index.php?tyt=7&l=1 Archived 2016-04-03 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 19 June 2018
^Fawley Court website in Polish reporting about exhumation and reburial of rev. Jarzębowski in Fairmile Cemetery: http://www.fawleycourt.info Archived 2017-10-13 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 15 June 2018
^Malevski Mirek (2010). "World Famous Fallen Giant Treasure disappeared from Fawley Court" (154 ed.). nowyczas.pdf. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help), p. 6-7 in English http://www.nowyczas.co.uk/wydania/154/nowyczas.pdf Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 15 June 2018
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