Not a perfect wartime hero: A Czechoslovak soldier’s painting comes home, revealing a story far from black and white
On Saturday, 4 July 2026, a commemorative ceremony was held in the English civil parish of Cholmondeley that marked the arrival of Czechoslovak soldiers in the UK in July 1940. Their ranks included men from all walks of life – students, factory workers, professional soldiers but also people who lived on the fringes of legality. A painting by one of the soldiers, created in Cholmondeley park in the summer of 1940, has now returned there.
A green park, a pond covered with water lilies in the foreground, and trees and brown tents in the background, where Czechoslovak soldiers slept. This is how one of the soldiers depicted the surroundings of the civil parish of Cholmondeley in 1940. His name was František Besperát.
“If he had gone to a proper art school where he could have used his talents and really develop them, then who knows… But to think he actually sat in Cholmondeley painting this in 1940 is just incredible.”
Says Gerry Manolas, Chair of the Memorial Association for Free Czechoslovak Veterans. Her grandfather, Bohuslav Šulc, was one of the approximately 4,000 Czechoslovak soldiers who arrived in Cholmondeley in July 1940. She therefore had the opportunity to hear first-hand about the experiences of the exhausted soldiers who arrived in an unfamiliar country. And from her account, it is clear that the harsher the conditions in the military camp, the warmer the welcome they received from the local people.
“These local people were just fantastic, really welcoming them for example for afternoon tea or to join them on week-ends. They were trying to make them feel at home.”
Such wartime friendship is also part of the story behind František Besperát's painting. He presented the oil painting as a gift to a local family, as evidenced by a handwritten inscription on the back of the canvas. The text goes as follows:
“This picture was painted in 1940 by a Czechoslovak artist in Cholmondeley Park while he was stationed there, under canvas, after being evacuated from Dunkirk with the Free Czeck Army and given to Mrs. B. Blake of Bradeley for her kindness to members of that force.”
So far, Manolas has been unable to trace any descendants of Mrs Blake. The painting itself was purchased at an auction some time ago by a local resident, who, after discovering its connection to the Czechoslovaks, donated it to the Memorial Association for Free Czechoslovak Veterans. What Manolas did manage to find out, however, was who František Besperát was — and his story certainly does not fit the idealised image of a flawless war hero.
“He had been a thief, he had made up fake news about himself, he lied about his CV, he lied about his life, he left his family in Czechoslovakia and just disappeared.”
Before the war, Besperát, for example, earned extra money by accepting commissions for artworks in advance. He would take the money, never complete the work, and flee to another town. Despite that, it is true, however, that during the Second World War he did serve in the Czechoslovak Army. Manolas therefore emphasises that these, too, are the stories of veterans, and they deserve to be part of history – a history that is almost never black and white.
“What I want people to understand is that different people from all backgrounds fought with our Czechoslovak veterans. They weren’t all the perfect heroes. They were human, like a lot of us.”
At the beginning of July, during a commemorative gathering, the painting, once created by a man with a troubled past who later became a war veteran, was placed in the chapel alongside other historical artefacts linked to the shared Czechoslovak-British wartime history.
Every painting tells a story.
Sometimes the greatest mystery is the person holding the brush.
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