Tadeusz Jarzembowski, known in Britain as Tadek Jarski, became known in the UK for his work as head of Solidarity with Solidarity, a non-party political organisation created after the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981.

Born in Poland in 1933, Jarski escaped communism at the age of 19 by smuggling himself aboard an Italian merchant ship. He made his way to England to join his father, who had been a soldier in the Polish Army and remained in exile following the end of the Second World War.

During the 1956 Hungarian uprising Jarski helped to organise a volunteer student battalion that wanted to fight against the Red Army. The uprising was crushed by the Russians before they left Britain, but the experience left an indelible mark on the young Jarski. He realised that although support in the UK for the Hungarians was very strong, their plight quickly faded from public awareness.

In 1980, when the Solidarity movement came into being in Poland, Jarski helped to develop ties between Solidarity and its UK counterparts.

On December 13, 1981, when martial law was declared in Poland and Solidarity was outlawed, Jarski organised the first demonstration of protest in the UK. Within hours several thousand people had gathered outside the Polish Embassy in London in the snow.

Jarski, mindful of the lessons of 1956 and the Prague Spring 12 years later, founded Solidarity with Solidarity (SWS) to provide political support for Solidarity in Poland. Over the next ten years Jarski and the members of SWS worked hard to keep the plight of Solidarity and the Polish people in the forefront of British public consciousness. To this end, SWS organised countless demonstrations – including one outside the Polish Embassy on the 13th of every month – letter-writing campaigns and petitions.

One of Jarski’s achievements was that he persuaded leading British politicians of all political persuasions to take an active role in supporting the Polish cause, including Anthony Coombes, Peter Shore, Simon Hughes, Shirley Williams, David Owen, Alex Carlile, Winston Churchill and Lord Bethell and Lord St Oswald.

Several early day motions were tabled and adjournment debates undertaken supporting Solidarity and the Poles. This constant pressure ensured that when Mrs Thatcher visited Poland, she launched a demand for Polish freedom.

After the collapse of communism, Jarski returned to his beloved Poland to help to build democracy there. Jarski loved Britain and greatly admired its institutions, and he wanted to bring the best of what he had experienced in the UK to Poland. He remained active in politics and was elected a city councillor in Warsaw.

Jarski was a man of many interests, which he always pursued with great passion. He was an officer in the British Merchant Navy, a keen yachtsman and a successful entrepreneur. He was well read and fluent in English and Polish and was a published political commentator and poet in both languages.

In March this year, despite failing health, Jarski flew to the UK to deliver the eulogy for his close friend and colleague, councillor Mike Oborski. Just weeks before he died he recorded an interview for Polish television in which he called for public recognition in Poland of those many Britons who selflessly championed the cause of Polish freedom.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Tadek Jarski (Tadeusz Jarzembowski), campaigner for Polish freedom, was born on May 16, 1933. He died of complications after a heart operation on June 14, 2007, aged 74