Halina Regulska

Halina Regulska (née Maciejowska) (14 December 1899 – December 1994) was a Polish racing driver, socialite, a member of the underground Polish resistance movement in World War II who took part in the Warsaw Uprising, and an author.

Early life Halina Maciejowska was born in Zawiercie on 14 December 1899, the daughter of Klementyna (née Czerwińska) and Ignacy Maciejowski. Halina Maciejowska co-organised the Komitet Opieki nad Żołnierzem Polskim (Committee for the Protection of Polish Soldiers). The committee supplied clothes and organised food and medicine for soldiers fighting on the borders of the newly established Republic of Poland. She prepared to take part in the Silesian Uprisings (1919–1921) by completing a Red Cross course, keen to support the Polish nationalist drive to bring what was part of the Weimar Republic into the newly founded Polish Republic. When living in Dąbrowa Basin, she organised a banner welcoming home the troops who had fought at the Battle of Lemberg (1918) (also known as the Defense of Lwów).

Marriage In November 1919, Halina Maciejowska married Janusz Regulski, a wealthy industrialist fourteen years her senior, becoming known as Halina Regulska. In 1923, inflation was ruinously high and the Polish marka was rapidly devaluating, so Regulski decided to invest his fortune in a property called "Zarybie" on the edge of the village of Żółwin, Masovian Voivodeship, not far from the garden city, Podkowa Leśna. The property was initially two acres with small buildings. Regulska recalled years later:

The location of Zarybie was exceptionally beautiful. To the north and west it was surrounded by an old, tall pine forest, and to the south and east the space was open and free and drowned in sun and light'. Over time, the plot grew to forty hectares. A grand villa stood on it. And right next door, the fashionable Podkowa Leśna housing estate began to emerge. The family had the house rebuilt and the small plot of land was soon transformed into a 40-acre French style formal garden, with volleyball and cricket pitches and a tennis court. In time, the Regulski family managed to create a thriving self-sufficient farm with its own dairy, greenhouses, orchard and arable fields".

The nearest railway station in Brwinów was nearly three kilometres away from the house and it was decided that they needed to acquire a car.

Motor racing The Regulskis' shared passion was motoring. The first car they bought was a Tatra T 30 with a four-cylinder air-cooled engine. Janusz Regulski first took part in a car rally in 1925. He was involved in the organisation of automobile sport and from 1926 was chairman of the sports committee of the Automobile Club of Poland and vice-president of the organisation. In 1926 Halina Regulska took part in her first rally. She became known as a very talented competitor. In the same year, the Regulski family exchanged their Tatra for a Métallurgique limousine, and soon also bought a Bugatti T37 sports car. For her contribution to the building the church, she was awarded the papal order Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, the highest Catholic honour that could be awarded to women at the time.

The Regulskis also had a passion for motor tourism. The couple travelled around Western Europe and North Africa with their children Jerzy and Hanna. They travelled in an Austro-Daimler, which replaced the Métallurgique. The Regulskis brought back a lot of souvenirs from their tour of Africa, which they displayed in the so-called Moroccan Room in their home. Most of these mementos were looted by the Germans stationed there in 1939. Regulska later describes the time as "Scenes out of Dante."

Publications Halina Regulska published two volumes of memoirs from the siege of Warsaw and the years of occupation in the Second World War: Dziennik z oblężonej Warszawy and Tamte lata, tamte czasy: wspomnienia z II wojny światowej. She also wrote the book Samochodem przez dwudziestolecie.

In popular culture The character of Halina Regulska appeared in Ałbena Grabowska's novel Stulecie Winnych. In the TV series of the book, Stulecie Winnych, the role of Regulska is played by actress Marta Ojrzyńska.