Maurycy O’Brien de Lacy was a Polish Count of Irish descent, social activist and local government official. He was the President of Grodno in 1930-1933.
Background
Maurycy O’Brien de Lacy was born in 1891 in Augustówek manor near Grodno (today’s Belarus) into a noble family of an Irish Count Alexander O’Brien de Lacy and Polish Gabriela Radovitska. There were 2 more sons in the family, Terencjusz and Patryk.
Education
He graduated from Riga Technical University. He studied Agriculture there.
Career
Already during his studies at the University in Riga, O’Brien de Lacy joined the student academic organization Arkonia in 1911 (an ideological-educational association of Polish male academic youth, created on May 9, 1879 in Riga Technical University).
During the World War I, he worked for the Red Cross, was the commandant of the sanitary train in the so-called Novorossiya “New Russia” (Odessa) and Ukraine. During the Russian Revolution of 1917-1918, he stayed in Moscow, where he was employed in food supplies. In 1918, he returned to the Augustówek manor on the southern suburbs of Grodno. In 1919-1920 he fought in the Polish–Soviet War.
Upon return, O’Brien de Lacy began rebuilding his family manor in Augustówek inherited together with his brothers. He was active socially in the Grodno poviat, acted as the Vice-President of the Union of Earthlings, became member of the Agricultural Society. In 1930-1933, he was the President of Grodno.
In September 1939, he was appointed social agricultural inspector of the Grodno poviat. After the occupation of the Eastern Territories by the Soviet army, he went to the Mazowsze region, where he administered Warsaw suburban estate. He was arrested by the Gestapo, but as a result of his wife's intervention in 1940, he was released. During the war he also worked at the estate in Warsaw's Rakowiec.
Achievements
Politics
During his studies at the University in Riga, O’Brien de Lacy joined the student academic organization Arkonia in 1911 (ideological-educational association of Polish male academic youth, created on May 9, 1879 in Riga Technical University). He supported their ideas. The goals of the Arkonia were to propagate patriotism among its members and society, shaping the moral attitudes of youth, personal dignity and honor, integration with the environment, as well as social life organization.
Membership
Union of Poviats of the Republic of Poland
,
Poland
1936
Connections
During his work at the Red Cross, he met a Russian aristocrat Nadzieja Drucka. They got married in November, 1917.