Mirosław Artur Bojanowicz (1906 - 9 May 1986)[1] was a Polish philatelist who settled in England after WWII and became a recognized expert on the stamps of Poland. He frequently served as a judge at international exhibitions and in 1966 was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists;[2] Bojanowicz was one of very few professional philatelists to be accorded this honour.[3]
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Bojanowicz was born in Yugoslavia and as a child moved with his parents to Poland.[1]
Before the war he collected Bosnia and Herzegovina for which he won a gold medal in Warsaw in 1936. He later expanded this collection to the whole of Yugoslavia.[2]
After the war he formed a collection of the postal history and stamps of Poland for the period 1938 to 1946 which, in 1966, he donated to the British Museum (now the British Library). This collection includes Łodz ghetto post, underground posts, Warsaw Scout post, Polish government in exile, prisoner of war mail and Polish Free Forces mail.[4]
He specialised in Poland No 1 and probably had one of the largest collection of this stamp in the world. This collection comprised some 1,500 copies of the stamp, over 300 covers and about 600 documents from this period.[5] He started this collection in 1952.[6] He was the author of The Kingdom of Poland: Poland No 1 and associated Postal History (1979).
In 1966 Bojanowicz donated an important collection of Polish stamps and postal history of 1938-1946 to the British Library Philatelic Collections where it complements the Kaluski Collection. The Bojanowicz Collection includes:[7]
Bojanowiz won many awards for his collection including: