JAN PADEREWSKI PIANIST, COMPOSER AND PRIME MINISTER OF POLAND

Contributed by Valerie Kerslake

The story: Jan Paderewski once lived at Barclay House in Yateley

Why the story is wrong

It was HERMAN DAREWSKI who lived at Barclay House, Vicarage Road, Yateley. He too was a pianist and composer, and a very successful theatrical entrepreneur, composing songs and music for numerous West End shows in the 1920s and 1930s. At one time he had productions on in four London theatres simultaneously, but he did not have wide-spread fame, admiration and even adoration that was felt for the handsome and talented Paderewski, first as a pianist and then as a Polish patriot.

Darewski rented Barclay House for two or three years in 1918; years later his son realised it was to get his young family out of London which was being bombed during the last year of the First World War. Some Yateley people may just remember the New Year's Eve party at the Drill Hall in Yateley for which he sent down from London a crate of toys and a conjurer.