Banbury woman's true life story is stranger than fiction

Marjorie Crosby Słomczyńska’s life story will be told by her great nephew, Dr Alan Crosby, in the next Banbury Historical Society lecture on Thursday, December 9 at 7.30pm.

Dr Crosby has called his lecture Truth is Stranger than Fiction: the extraordinary life of Marjorie Crosby Słomczyńska (born Banbury 1884).

Marjorie Crosby was born in Banbury in 1884 and died in Poland in 1954. In between she lived a truly remarkable life, filled with drama, heartache, love, passion, tragedy and scandal.

The journey takes us to pre-1914 St Petersburg, Dublin, Warsaw in the 1920s, Paris and Hollywood in the ‘30s and life and death in Nazi-occupied Poland.

It was all a far cry from Banbury, where her family had lived for over three centuries. Alan Crosby, her great-nephew, tells her extraordinary story.

Alan Crosby has been editor of The Local Historian since 2001. Ten generations of his Crosby forebears lived in Banbury from the time of Elizabeth I and he has published several articles in Cake & Cockhorse. These include a study of his great-great grandfather George Crosby (1820-1886), who was mayor in 1872.

Lectures take place in the Education Room of Banbury Museum but it will also be possible for people to watch this at home, by signing in with Simon Townsend ([email protected]). Non-members are very welcome: they can receive one lecture free but will then be invited to pay per screening, or to join the society.