A FAMILY business is celebrating 50 years of trading – courtesy of one man’s bid to escape the Nazis and build a new life.

Michael’s Watchmakers and Jewellers was opened by Ukrainian refugee Dimitri Michailuk in 1957.

Dimitri had arrived in England in 1947 after fleeing the Nazi invasion of his country during the Second World War.

Installed in a Displaced Persons Camp in Somerset, the Ukrainian couldn’t speak a word of English.

However, he changed his name to Michael, because of his surname, began to learn the language and moved to Manchester where he worked as a chef and met his wife Frances.

After contracting tuberculosis, Michael spent two years convalescing in Wales where he began making jewellery and repairingwatches.

His daughter Katrina said patients were encouraged to take up hobbies to keep them occupied and help with their recovery.

"Dad took to it and found a real art," she said. "People visiting began bringing in bits and bobs for him and he would repair them and give them back."

When he’d recovered, Michael went back to school to study horology – the art of making and repairing clocks and watches – and worked as an apprentice jeweller.

Michael and Frances started their own business from their flat, finally opening their first shop in Manchester in November 1957. The business flourished and within a few years the family were running two more shops across the city.

Michael took on many apprentices, including his daughter Katrina and neph-ew Anthony, who became an expert.

However the family started to suffer a run of bad luck.

In 1993 Anthony died of a brain tumour and within two years two of the three shops had been bought compulsorily for new city developments.

The business was held-up by armed robbers twice, the last of which in 1997 Katrina believes contributed to her father’s death in 1999.

"My dad was never a worrier, he was very strong- willed," Katrina said. "But that just about ruined him."

Despite the setbacks, the business survived and in 2001 Katrina and Nick made the move to Hollins Road, where they hope to last another 50 years.

Katrina said: "Dad was a very skilled and hardworking man. I have so much admiration for him and what he achieved. I just wish that I could leave a similar legacy as he did."