Antonín Stáně

* 1944

  • “Our grandfather A. B. Svojsík had bought a small house in Lety, and I used to go there. He had visited Japan in the past, and when the Japanese crises broke out, he organised a series of talks and that way made some money to buy that small house. However, the local committee kept forcing tenants upon us, people who needed somewhere to stay, so my youth was much affected by our constant struggle to keep one or two rooms in the house for ourselves.”

  • “The first thing they did was to summon us back to Czechoslovakia. My parents had been considering fleeing to America but there was a sister and a grandmother in the country, so they decided to return. At first, my father was stationed at a ministry, later he worked as a solicitor. I remember quite clearly that between 1950-1951, he would come home only for the weekend. Then he got fired and from then on, it was very difficult for him to find a job. For instance, he worked at the National Museum where he was guarding the famous whale skeleton, and other such jobs.”

  • “I don’t particularly remember what the adults had to say about it, but naturally, as a child I gave in to the psychosis. I can still remember how much my sister hurt my feelings when during the Pioneer scarf ceremony, when they wrapped the scarfs round our necks, my way-older and much more politically aware sister said: ,And now we can use it to wipe our shoes!’”

  • “We, that is this charity, this institution, we function as something of a crossroads where different generations meet, people of varying fates, who - whether sooner or later - came to Britain from Bohemia and Moravia, or also from Slovakia, because we were brought up as Czechoslovaks and we still live in symbiosis with our Slovak friends.”

  • “It is something of a two-edged blade, as you feel that compared to this famous ancestor you have accomplished very little in your life. That is one thing, but on the other hand you have to accept that of course, we each have our opportunities and we each do our best. That was one thing, the thing where you thought to yourself: ‘I should do more.’ On the other hand it was a good moral encouragement, such a commitment.”

  • “And old acquaintance from pre-war Rome became the Italian ambassador in Prague, and he found out that my father was there, so he sent his driver with a calling card and the request that his father visit him some time. The driver worked for State Security, of course, so the following week my father received a summons to Bartholomew Street [State Security HQ in Prague - transl.].”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Orpington (Velká Británie), 04.10.2012

    (audio)
    duration: 01:19:50
    media recorded in project A Century of Boy Scouts
  • 2

    Praha, 18.04.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:37:27
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

Czech Scouting founder’s grandson did not return from London following the invasion of Czechoslovakia

Ludmila & Vojtěch Stáňovi with their son Antonín (Wien 1947?)
Ludmila & Vojtěch Stáňovi with their son Antonín (Wien 1947?)
photo: Karel Hájek

Antonín Stáně was born on November 16, 1944, in Prague. His parents were Vojtěch Stáně and Ludmila Stáňová, née Svojsíková. The witness’ mother was born into the family of Antonín Benjamin Svojsík, the founder of Czech Scouting, as the eldest child. After the Second World War, the witness’ father Vojtěch Stáně was posted at the Czechoslovak embassy in Vienna, and this is where Antonín Stáně spent his early childhood. After the communist coup of 1948, Vojtěch Stáně was forced to leave the embassy under pressure from the Party and ended up in a labourer’s job. After graduation from secondary school, Antonín Stáně started his studies at the faculty of civil engineering, which he successfully finished in 1968. Having obtained his degree, he went to the UK for the summer and due to the radical change of political milieu in Czechoslovakia, decided to remain on the British Isles. Later, he was excepted to a postgraduate study programme at the University of London and consequently participated on the construction of the National Theatre in London. In his later career, he was particularly involved with structural stability. In the 1990s, he became the director of a Prague-based branch of a certain private British construction-engineering company. Following the company’s demise during the depression, he finished his career in civil engineering and investment. He returned to London, where he mostly devoted himself to the operation of a compatriot club called Velehrad. At the time of the interview in April 2023, the witness was living in London.