My grandfather Dushan Chimbur, who has died aged 97, arrived in the UK soon after the second world war as a displaced person, fleeing war and persecution in Yugoslavia. In 1944, Dushan, his father and uncle embarked on a three-year journey across Europe, travelling on foot through Croatia and Slovenia, before reaching Italy, where they remained from 1945 to 1947. They were then taken to a displaced persons camp in Germany.
At the time, the British government’s European Voluntary Workers programme was recruiting individuals from those camps to fill labour shortages. It was through this scheme that he came to the UK and began to work on a farm near Abergavenny, south Wales. In 1950 he joined the steel makers Stewarts & Lloyds in Corby, Northamptonshire, later nationalised as part of British Steel, and remained there for 34 years.
In 1955 Dushan married Milica (nee Berić), whom he had met the year before when she arrived from Yugoslavia with her mother and brother. They had a son, Sava, and daughter, Mirjana. Dushan played an important part in the Serbian community in Corby, and made significant contributions to the Serbian Orthodox church and hall.
Born in Polača, a village that is now in Croatia, Dushan was the son of Manda Vučencović, a housewife, and Sava Čimbur, a steelworker. He faced adversity from a very young age, receiving little schooling and suffering hunger and typhus. For a time he was held by communists during the Partisan-Chetnik conflict.
During the Balkan wars of the 1990s, Dushan arranged for the production of special wooden crates to ensure the safe transportation of critical sterilising equipment to hospitals in Belgrade and Montenegro. These were received by representatives of the Lifeline Humanitarian Organisation, whose patron is Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia, and made possible by his employer at the time, John Carr Ltd, which sold building and joinery supplies; he worked at the firm from the late 80s to the mid-90s, when he retired.
Dushan overcame cancer at the age of 87; he said the care he received from the NHS was “the best in the world”. While he never lost sight of where he came from, he wholeheartedly embraced his life in the UK and was appreciative of the many opportunities it gave him – to work, to build a home and secure a better future for his children.
Shortly after his death, Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia wrote in a letter to the family that Dushan’s faith and perseverance “deserve the highest respect and gratitude”.
He is survived by Milica, Sava and Mirjana, by his grandchildren, Christina and me, and a great-granddaughter, Cecilia.
