Historic documents relating to the pioneering Jeep dealers, Metamet, have been discovered in a battered suitcase, having belonged to a man whose story is nothing short of extraordinary
Historic photographs found in a battered suitcase help to illustrate the incredible wartime escape of Polish POW Filip Rosz, who walked free from a Russian concentration camp, fought with the British and became a Metamet engineer after the end of World War Two.
Anita Long, the daughter of Metamet engineer Filip Rosz, came across her father’s unopened suitcase after decades in storage. Filip, a veteran of the exiled Polish Army, had served in Persia and Italy before being brought to the UK. He joined a number of other Polish refugees working for Metamet shortly after it was set up after hostilities ceased.
Metamet was the go-to stockist for original Jeep, Dodge and other military vehicle parts for several decades after the war. Ray Garrood, a lifelong fan of the ubiquitous Jeep, used to visit Metamet in Daleham Mews in London in the early 1970s to pick up Jeep spares. By sheer coincidence, while he was surfing the internet recently, Ray spotted a post about Metamet from Anita Long, who now lives near Sydney, Australia.
