Kirknewton Churchyard Section A Row 7 – 6 – Balai
Transcription
Treasured memories of a loving husband dad and grandad. Lajos John BALAI from Kegskemet - Hungary died 17th Dec 1973 aged 46 years.
Commentary
This is an abridge life story of Mr Lajos Balai given to us by his daughter Jacqueline Conroy. We are extremely grateful for her contribution.
You met my mother and sister at Kirknewton church last weekend and were asking for information on my Father, Lajos Balai. born 2/1/1927 died 17/12/1973.
Dad was born 2nd January 1927 in Kecskemet, Hungary. He had 4 sisters and 2 brothers. He escaped from Hungary when he was 16, (that must have been in 1943) by going across country to the Austrian border and crossing unseen into Austria. Unfortunately I don't know if he went alone or in a group of people - if only he was here to ask.
In Austria he joined the German Army to fight against the Russians who were his enemy. He was injured in battle, sustaining a gunshot wound through his knee and ended up being captured by the Americans and held in a prisoner of war camp which is where he was when the war ended.
On being liberated he had the opportunity to either go back to Hungary, go to America or come to the UK. He chose the UK mainly because many of his friends were coming here. Obviously he didn't want to go back to Hungary because he wanted to live in a free country.
He was sent to Selkirk to work in the Woollen mills and it was there that he met my mother. He left the Mills I think in 1949 and started working as a Forester for the Bowhill Estate (Duke of Buccleugh) and my parents started their married life living in a workers hut on that Estate.
In 1956 Dad took a job with the College Valley Estates and the family moved to Hethpool, in the College Valley, where he lived for the rest of his life. He suffered a heart attack and died suddenly on 17th December 1973 at the age of 46.
Self-taught, he learned to speak English fluently and was asked to assist the authorities as a translator when Hungarian refugees came to UK during the 1956 uprising in Hungary.
In the mid-1960's he successfully applied for Naturalisation and became a UK citizen so that he could safely visit his relatives in Hungary. It was too risky to return to Hungary without that official protection from the UK, as the Hungarian authorities could have refused to let him leave again. He was able to visit his family 4 times before his untimely death.
He left behind 6 children and now has 13 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.
I don't think my Dad would ever have imagined where his life would take him when as a 16-year-old he wanted to escape a repressive regime or that 73 years later he would have 23 direct descendants and a close family of 30 people all living in a country totally alien to him at that time!
His family stayed in Hungary with the exception of his younger sister Mimi, who came to the UK as a refugee during the 1956 uprising. She was a Seamstress and got a job in South Shields where she settled down and had a family. She died about 10 years ago. My 2 cousins still live in that area.
His elder brother died long before Dad (I don't know the cause), and his younger brother died the year after him aged 42. He had 4 sisters, Mimi as above, then twin sisters Panika and Rita, (Panika died a few years ago) and Marika. As far as I know 2 of his sisters are still alive and living in Hungary. We used to get news via my Aunty Mimi and then from a neighbour in Hungary who could speak English but we no longer hear anything.
