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

Joy Harman

Joy Harman

One of the 11 "children of England" present on 7th July 1933 when The Princess Royal laid a foundation stone for a nurses home for the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

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Anna Kendall

Anna Kendall

Headteacher of Christ Church Primary School, 1992 - 2009. The image comes from a 2010 interview.

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Children who died in the Evelina at Guy's Hospital

Children who died in the Evelina at Guy's Hospital

See the Evelina Children's Hospital for more information.

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1 memorial
Jim Gaffney

Jim Gaffney

Spent his life helping vulnerable children.

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Kate Greenaway

Kate Greenaway

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Person, Art, Children, Poetry, Seriously Famous

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John Joseph Sims, VC

John Joseph Sims, VC

Soldier. A private in the 34th Regiment of Foot. On 18th June 1855 in Sebastopol, he went out under heavy fire in broad daylight and brought in wounded soldiers from outside the trenches. For his a...

Person, Armed Forces, Crimea

War served, Other war
1 memorial