Malcher was born at the onset of World War I in Upper Silesia. He studied law and administration in the already sovereign Poland at the Jagiellonian University, and political systems at the School of Political Sciences in Kraków. He arrived in Great Britain after the Dunkirk evacuation of British and French forces during that battle. Decades after World War II, during the birth of Solidarity in Poland which coincided with his retirement, Malcher was again involved in the political struggle for Poland's return to freedom. He died in Hampshire, United Kingdom, aged 86 years, survived by Jadwiga, his wife of 54 years and their three children.