A WEST Fife RAF flying officer who saw action during the Warsaw Uprising has been awarded a special medal by the Poles in gratitude for his vital contribution to their cause over 70 years ago.

David Lambert (90) received the 70th anniversary commemorative medal at his home in Dalgety Bay from the Polish consul on the 14th of December. The medal was presented to him on behalf of the Association of Warsaw Uprising Insurgents and David has previously received medals in person in Warsaw from the president of Warsaw and president of Poland.

The various Polish medals David has received are for his role as a Halifax dispatcher with the RAF’s 148 special duties squadron during the 1944 relief of Warsaw when food supplies were dropped to the starving citizens of the city. Warsaw’s residents at that time were surrounded by German and Russian forces.

David’s squadron flew from Brindisi in southern Italy in August 1944 on extremely long, hazardous, non-stop flights over enemy territory that were among some of the longest ever recorded by the RAF – very few returned.

Edinburgh’s Polish consul said to David, “The distinction which I have the honour to present to you is a symbol of commemoration and gratitude and it is so important to remember and commemorate people like you.” David was born in Inverkeithing and has lived in Dalgety Bay for the last 45 years. After the war he worked for RAF recruitment based mostly in Dundee and Edinburgh and he spent the remainder of his working life with the family slater and plasterer business in Inverkeithing.

A member of Aberdour golf club for over 50 years, David married Myrtle Anderson in 1948 in Broughty Ferry and they spent their married lives in Hillend and Dalgety Bay. They were married for over 50 years before Myrtle sadly passed away in 2002. They felt very lucky to have celebrated 50 years of marriage in 1998 at their home in Sealstrand, Dalgety Bay for which they had bought the plot and built the house on. David has two children, Stephen and Pamela, four extremely proud grandchildren and he became a great-grandfather three times over in 2014.

David’s son, Stephen, said, “He was extremely moved to receive the commemorative medal at his home but was especially pleased to have been able to make trips to Warsaw, the most recent of which was in August 2014, to remember and commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

“There remains a great camaraderie between all those involved in the relief of Warsaw and especially between the remaining Halifax crew of which there are now so few.” In March 2014, David, along with the last remaining Halifax crew members Larry Toft and Jim McKenzie-Leith, met up at the Yorkshire air museum to film part of a documentary for Polish television alongside a fully-restored Handley Page Halifax.