LUDWIG Olesinski, who settled in Great Harwood, was a passionate painter.

Never recognised during his lifetime – he died in 1987 – his proud family have since discovered that his work has been displayed at Rossendale Museum, as well as a BBC website for personal paintings.

Now, his grandson, Paul Dawson, has recollected the loving grandfather, who hid a great sadness under his sense of humour.

Said Paul: “Grandfather was a passionate painter and strove desperately to be recognised as an artist; he would enter a host of competitions and send submissions to galleries throughout his life in East Lancashire.

“Looking back on my grandfather’s life, I see a sense of trying to erase deep tragedies by creating something beautiful and even though it is modest, I hope that the recognition he recently gained has gone someway to do so.”

He added: “Two abiding memories of my grandad remain with me. The first is of him talking about art and guiding us through how to paint and draw – he was desperate to pass his passion on to my brother and myself.

“The second is of his hands constantly shaking.”

Ludwig was only 17 when he was displaced from his home in the south of Poland following Hitler’s invasion in 1939.

For most of the war he guarded submarine bases for the Germans, before being sent to Italy to help stop the advance of the Allies.

He was liberated by the Canadians and was quickly recruited into the Polish Liberated Army and fought for the Allies for the remainder of the war.

Unable to return home because of the threat of punishment from the Soviets, he was exiled for the rest of his life.

Ludwig was on his way to Canada when he made an interim stop at Morton Hall, near Whalley and met the girl who was to become his wife, Elizabeth Owen, and went on to have three children, Kenneth, Rita and Lynne.

He worked at Butts Mill, XL Crisps and Northern Press Knives – it was the owner Mr Griffiths who donated his paintings to the museum – in Great Harwood and had his own business as a painter and decorator, which failed following the severe winter of 1963.

The family lived at 14, Kipling Place, Great Harwood and Ludwig painted a mural on one of the walls, which is probably hidden now and competed another for Ann Swarbrick in Cattle Street.

Said Paul: “As his grandson I was often treated to his macabre sense of humour, when he would show off his war wound to me and my brother and yet underneath his humour, was a great sadness.

“He remembered the war vividly.

“Two memories stuck in his mind, one was a tangled mess of a young boy and his bicycle in the ruins of a liberated Italy – he called this his ‘photograph’ in his mind.

“The other is of having to kill a man which, he told my father, was the worst thing he ever did.”

He continued: “This was his language; images and memories of his lost past. These he understood and led him to his great passion of painting.

“In these paintings there is an attempt to erase the damage he suffered during, and after, the war.

“They betray a sense of loneliness and homesickness.”