W³adys³aw Sikorski was born in 1881 in Tuszów Narodowy near Mielec (in the Austrian zone of partitioned Poland), in the family of a parish organ player. He began his higher education in 1898 at a teacher training college in Rzeszów; then he went on to the Lwów Polytechnic, where in 1908 he received an engineering diploma from the Faculty of Structural Engineering. Between 1904 and 1905 he completed his service in the Austro-Hungarian army, in the rank of sub-lieutenant. The patriotically minded young reserve officer became involved in conspiracy. He became a military training officer in the clandestine combat organisation of the PPS Polish Socialist Party, under the leadership of Józef Pi³sudski.

In 1910 Sikorski became the chairman of the overt rifle association created by Pi³sudski. Following the outbreak of the First World War he was appointed commanding officer of the newly-created Polish Officers' College in Cracow. He also took an active part in the battles of Pi³sudski's Legions as commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Second Brigade and, after reclaiming Przemy¶l from the Austrians, became the chief of staff at the Polish headquarters in that fortress. After the war and the restoration of the Polish state, he fought against Ukrainian forces on Poland's eastern border and organised the relief of the besieged city of Lwów. In August 1920 he was given the command of the 5th Army, with which he stopped the Soviet forces on the River Wkra . He was promoted to the rank of major-general in recognition of his bravery during the Polish-Bolshevik war, especially in the Battle of Zamo¶æ, in which he fought Budionny's cavalry.

His political career started in 1921. On 1 April he became the Chief of General Staff and a year later, following the assassination of the President Gabriel Narutowicz, he was appointed Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs. He was given the ungrateful task of quelling civil unrest and bringing the country back to a state of domestic harmony. Yet internal conflicts between the parties and Marshal Pi³sudski's struggle for authoritarian power made Sikorski's government collapse in 1923. A year later, following his appointment to the Ministry of Military Affairs in the cabinet of the next Prime Minister, W³adys³aw Grabski, he began working on the development of the navy, air force and munitions industry. At the same time he was in command of the Lwów 6th District Corps. When he declined to make an open stand during the May coup organised by Marshal Pi³sudski in 1926, which led to the collapse of the government and Pi³sudski's effective seizure of power, he was dismissed from his military duties. Not having been given another commission, he left Poland for France, where he attended further military training courses. He was also involved in politics; he and Ignacy Paderewski a former prime minister, and other opponents of Pi³sudski's Sanacja regime, made the Front Morges alliance of centre parties, and eventually set up a new centrist party (Partia Pracy).

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, General Sikorski took command of the Polish Army which was formed in France in late September 1939. On 30 September he was summoned by the Polish government in exile, which then had its headquarters in Paris. The government was recognised by the majority of European countries except Germany, with which Poland was at war, and the USSR, which had invaded Poland on 17 September. None the less, Sikorski supported the idea of normalising Polish-Soviet relations and began negotiations with Russia in the summer of 1941. On the grounds of an agreement signed in June by Sikorski and Ambassador Mayski for the Soviet Union, the one and a half million Poles who had been deported to the Soviet Union (mostly to Siberia) as a result of Soviet annexation of Polish territories in September 1939, were to be freed and both countries were to support each other in the fight against Hitler's Germany. This agreement resulted in the creation of a Polish army on Soviet territory under the command of General Anders. Most of the men in this force were freed deportees to Siberia. In August 1942 this 70 thousand-strong Army left Soviet territory for Iran.

In June 1943, W³adys³aw Sikorski went to the Middle East to inspect the Polish units. On 4 July, during his return trip, his plane crashed over the Straits of Gibraltar a few minutes after take-off. His daughter Zofia, Chief of Staff General Klimecki, an English liaison officer and all the other passengers on board died with him. Only the Czech pilot survived the crash.

General Sikorski was buried in the Polish pilots' cemetery in Newark, Great Britain. On 17 September 1993, his ashes were brought to Poland and laid to rest in Wawel Cathedral, the burial place for the most distinguished men and women of Poland.

Facts Numerous streets, squares and schools in Poland have been named in honour of General Sikorski. His monument stands in ulica Belwederska in Warsaw. Also, the Polish Military and Historical Institute in London has been named after him.