Gordon Brown described the Polish Club as having been a central point of social life of Kirkcaldy and Fife for decades.
Terje Bendiksby/PAP/EPA

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has thrown his weight behind attempts to preserve the Polish Club in Kirkcaldy in Eastern Scotland, which is under threat of losing its headquarters.

Local paper Fife Free Press reported on Wednesday that Brown, who served as UK prime minister between 2007 and 2010, also represented the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in the House of Commons between 2005 and 2015.

He described the Polish Club there as having been a central point of social life of Kirkcaldy and Fife for decades. “We owe so much to the Polish community in wartime and since and for the part they play in the life of our community,” Brown said, as quoted by Fife Free Press.

The Fife Free Press wrote that so far, over 2,800 people have signed an internet petition with an appeal to the building’s owners, the Polish Ex-Combatants Association Foundation in London, to withdraw from plans to sell the property.

Support for the club has been expressed by the authorities of Ingolstadt in southern Germany, which is a twin town of Kirkcaldy. The Fife Free Press is also engaged in the campaign to save the building.

The Polish Club’s headquarters building was bought in 1953 with funds collected by Poles who stayed in the UK after WWII. The club’s leaders are opposed to plans to sell the building and the club’s membership has collected GBP 300,000 (EUR 347,615) to buy the site under a system granting pre-emptive purchasing rights to communities. A condition for the rules to apply, however, is the support of 10 percent of the local community.

Last weekend, the history of the Polish Club in Kirkcaldy and the fates of some of its founders was featured on the BBC website.

To find out more read Race on to save historic Polish club set up in Scotland by veterans after WWII