Patrick O'Brien de Lacy wearing uniform of the Russian army
Maurycy O’Brien de Lacy with his wife Nadzieja Drucka and children
Patryk
Patrick O’Brien de Lacy was born on August 15, 1888 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, Maurycy and Terencjusz.
He graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the St. Petersburg University.
Patrick O’Brien de Lacy served in the Army of the Russian Empire. In 1917, he left the Russian Army as a second lieutenant of sappers (Podporuchik), and became an adjutant of General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki in the Polish I Corps in Russia.
In 1920, he took part in the Polish–Soviet War. On May 3, 1922, he was verified in the rank of Major with seniority from June 1, 1919 and 54th in the corps of engineering officers and sappers. His parent unit was the 7th Regiment of the Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) Sappers in Poznan. In 1923, O’Brien de Lacy headed one of the units of the Department V of Engineering and Sappers of the Ministry of Military Affairs, remaining the superintendent of the 7th Regiment of Sappers of Greater Poland. In 1924-1926, he commanded the Sapper's Machine Battalion in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. In 1928, he served in the Central Engineering Depot, remaining on the records of the Electrotechnical Battalion. On January 23, 1929, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel with seniority from January 1, 1929 and the first in the corps of engineering officers and sappers. Later O’Brien de Lacy headed Military Department of Engineering Supply in Warsaw, and afterwards Technical Research Office of Armored Weapons in Warsaw. From January 1932 to December 1937, he combined his official duties with the function of the editor-in-chief of the "Military-Technical Review". He was appointed as Colonel with the seniority on March 19, 1937 and the 1st place in the corps of officers of armored weapons.
In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he was transferred to Pinsk. After September 17, 1939, and the USSR aggression on Poland, he managed to escape to Romania, and there he was sent to an internment camp. In February 1941 was handed over to the Germans. He was placed in Oflag VI-B (prisoner of war camp for officers) Dössel (now district of Warburg), where he stayed until the camp was liberated by the US Army in April 1945.
He married Maria Duszyńska. They had a son Hugo (1925-1958) and a daughter Margaret (born in 1928).
She was the author of the memories of Wild Goose from the Green Island.
