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

St Nicholas Nursery

St Nicholas Nursery

In association with the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street.

Group, Children, Medicine

1 memorial
William Hamley

William Hamley

Founded Hamleys toy shop. Born Cornwall.

Person, Children, Commerce

1 memorial
Hilda Mary Martin

Hilda Mary Martin

Killed, aged 2, in the Downhills shelter WW2 tragedy, 19 September 1940.

Person, Children

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Crystal Hale

Crystal Hale

Campaigner and community activist. Daughter of Sir Alan Herbert, she lived in Islington for almost 50 years. In the 1960s her house overlooked the City Road Basin and she led the campaign to save i...

Person, Children, Sport / Games

2 memorials
Thomas Bowman Stephenson

Thomas Bowman Stephenson

Wesleyan minister and benefactor. Born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He entered the Wesleyan ministry in 1860. In 1869 he founded the Children's Home (now known as the charity Action for Children) to pro...

Person, Benefactor, Children, Religion

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Gilbert Bayes

Gilbert Bayes

NW6, Greville Place, 4

Gilbert Bayes, 1872 - 1953, sculptor, lived here 1931 - 1953. English Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Second Lieutenant Edward Luke Henry Bagot

Second Lieutenant Edward Luke Henry Bagot

Edward Luke Henry Bagot was born on 18 October 1896 the younger child of Major, The Honourable, Walter Lewis Bagot, DSO (1864-1927) and Margaret Jane Caroline Bagot née Cadogan (1856-1941). His bir...

Person, Armed Forces, France

War dead, WW1
1 memorial