Stanisław Kot (1885-1975) studied Polish philology with elements of classical philology at the University of Lviv. He was active in the Galician organisation "Promień" and in the Polish Social-Democratic Party of Galicia and Cieszyn Silesia. In 1909, he received his doctoral degree. A year later, he started working at the IV Real Gymnasium in Kraków. In 1920, he obtained his habilitation at the Jagiellonian University. Subsequently, he conducted a seminar there, from which many future well-known personalities of Polish science graduated. He was one of the founders of the Krakow Publishing Company. In 1935, he began to belong to the People's Party. He took part in the peasant protests of 1936 and 1937. After the outbreak of war, after initially becoming involved in helping refugees from the Kraków voivodeship, he crossed the Polish-Romanian border. By October he was already in France. In 1940, he made his way to the United Kingdom. He was Minister of the Interior in Władysław Sikorski's government.