My husband, Simon Olszowski, who has died aged 71 after suffering from cancer and a stroke, was a ship broker-turned-boatbuilder with a deep empathy for displaced people. This had its roots in his parents’ wartime flight from Poland.
Simon’s parents, Tadeusz Olszowski, a Polish shipowner, and Zofia (nee Zembruska), lived in Moniaki, near Lublin, in the south of Poland. In 1939, as part of a Polish government mission, Tadeusz handed over his fleet to the allied war effort, and joined the British forces.
Zofia stayed at home with Simon’s two older brothers, Andrew and Stefan, housing displaced Poles seeking refuge from German persecution until 1943, when they were forced to flee, at one point sheltering in a chicken run. In 1945 they escaped to Sweden, where they were reunited with Tadeusz, and the following year the family moved to the UK.
They made their home in Sevenoaks, Kent, where Simon was born. He was educated at the Oratory school in Oxfordshire and then joined his father and brother Andrew in JS Hamilton, a shipbroking company bought by Tadeusz with compensation he received from the German government for the loss of his ships during the war.
From 1989 onwards, Simon developed the business into a successful marine recruitment company. He married Kerstin Soderlind in 1975, and they had four children. The marriage ended in divorce in 2011.
I met Simon when I was working with his son, Patrick, at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. We married in 2012. Simon was always a keen carpenter and sailor, and in 2017 he suggested we spend a year in Lyme Regis, Dorset, while he took a sabbatical to study wooden boatbuilding at the renowned Boat Building Academy.
This idea took hold as he questioned other aspects of his life: while his faith remained to the last, his Catholicism was shaken by the church’s internal scandals and its attitudes to divorce and homosexuality, while Brexit saddened this true European. Swapping his Daily Telegraph for a Guardian subscription, he mused: “Excellent, except for rugby coverage.”
Lyme Regis hooked us and we decided to stay. With three somewhat younger colleagues, Richard, Jamie and Sam, Simon established The Beautiful Boat Company.
After Simon’s death, my brother wrote of his “unabashed enjoyment of life coupled with a keen interest in, and sympathy for, the plight of others”. Recently he had been investigating taking a franchise for a Polish artisan ice-cream business, alongside exploring the viability of enabling refugees to train as builders, contributing to UK housebuilding before creating their own homes in their own lands.
He is survived by me, his children, Patrick, Camilla, James and Rupert, and seven grandchildren, Harry, Xander, Hector, Margot, Wilbur, Felix and Annabel.
