Introduction
There are many branches of our family, originating from Poland. This
memoir is of the English branch, founded by Max Infeld in 1900.
(There is only one other unrelated Infield family in England, the
Sussex Infields, descended from John Infield, a 16th century ironmaster
in West Hoathly who made a fortune supplying cannons to the
Elizabethan navy and built Gravetye Manor. This is not their story!).
This memoir – and it is a memoir, not a history, as there was
virtually no research – is primarily addressed to our grandchildren, but
also to their generation and successors, as when my generation has
gone there will be no one who knows these stories and I hope that one
day they will want to learn about their roots.
One thing I should particularly like to stress; these are my personal
recollections and some are of people with whom I did not have a great
deal of contact, so other family members, who knew them better, may
have very different views.
I had hoped to include photos of all the principal characters but
met with limited success in my searches, which is a pity. You will see
that several of the photos are in uniform, a sad reflection of the fact
that wars played a very significant role in most of our lives.
The family originally came from Cracow (Krakow) in Poland and
our name was Infeld; it was only changed to Infield by my father and
uncles after the First World War. My grandfather always remained an
Infeld.