Person    | Male  Born 19/5/1909  Died 1/7/2015

Sir Nicholas Winton

Categories: Children, Peace

Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE was a British banker and humanitarian who established an organisation to rescue children at risk from Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton supervised the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of WW2. Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for "children's transport").

Born in Hampstead as Nicholas George Wertheim. His parents were German Jews who had moved to London two years earlier. They changed the family name to Winton and converted to Christianity. In 1938-9 he became involved, with others, in the work to get Jewish children out of Europe before the war began. Only Britain and Sweden agreed to take children. America was asked but failed to take any.

His rescue work was unknown until 1983 when he became a national hero and was honoured. Died, aged 106, in Slough.

There are statues of Winton at Prague railway station (by Flor Kent) and at Maidenhead railway station.

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This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Sir Nicholas Winton

Creations i

Kindertransport - Kent

{Carved into the right side of the plinth:} Pro dítě {Czech for “for the chil...

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Other Subjects

Coram's Fields

Coram's Fields

The memorial at the entrance to these fields tells how this playground came into existence. It is the only public space in London where adults are not allowed without children.

Place, Children, Gardens / Agriculture

3 memorials
First Belgian School WW1

First Belgian School WW1

By June 1915, the population of Belgian refugees in Britain rose to 265,000. But we couldn't find anything on the web about the school in Cale Street.

Group, Children, Education, Belgium

1 memorial
Kindertransport

Kindertransport

10,000 unaccompanied mainly Jewish children fled from Nazi persecution in 1938 and 1939. This was organised mainly by World Jewish Relief, but many Quakers helped the children at stations on the jo...

Event, Children, Transport, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland

2 memorials
Roy Sterling

Roy Sterling

Devoted many years of his life to working with young people at Coram's Fields. Died before Spring 1993.

Person, Children

1 memorial
Carew Manor Special School

Carew Manor Special School

Now called Carew Academy. It teaches pupils aged 7 to18, with a wide range of ability levels and additional learning and complex needs.

Building, Children, Education

1 memorial