NameRadeskiAlternative NameRadeckiDescriptionIn 1938 the Wollongong Presbyterian community celebrated the opening of the new Saint Andrew's Church. A stained glass window was donated to the Church in dedication to William and Elizabeth James of Shellharbour with the inscription; ‘I was a stranger and you took me in’ and was followed by ‘In a grateful remembrance of William James of Shellharbour and his wife Elizabeth, who in 1882 befriended the artist and his father’.
The artist behind the window was Polish born Jan Radeski (John Radecki). John Radecki arrived in Australia at the age of 16 on board the 'Forfarshire' on 16 January 1882 with his four siblings and parents, Paul and Victoria Radeski. The reason for the family’s migration and settlement in Wollongong is not known. It may have been a job opportunity in one of the local coal mines. However, it is known that travelling with them was Thomas and Charlotte Wearn and their children who also settled in Wollongong.
John Radecki’s family was not wealthy, struggling in the beginning. John and his father had no work. When work became available in Kiama (30km from Wollongong) in one of the quarries, John and his father Paul walked there. They were not lucky, when they got there they found that the jobs had already been taken. Tired and hungry they had to walk back to Wollongong. On the way back, in Dunmore they met Mr Fuller who introduced them to Mr William James who offered them food and overnight shelter. This gesture of kindness stayed in the memory of John Radecki all his life and more than 50 years later he acknowledged the kindness he had experienced from Elizabeth and William James with the stained glass window.
Information researched and written by Zofia Laba and in parts by Barbara Mazur, Migration Heritage Centre (MHP) Wollongong. For more information on the Radecki family contact MHP .
William James & Family at 'Bravella', c.1870.