Sir Nicholas Winton: 1909-2015 – Timeline
Jewish News reflects on the life of one of Britain's great humanitarians - who orchestrated the kindertransport
1909 – Born Nicholas Wertheim in Hampstead to German Jewish parents
1923 – Enters Stowe, but later leaves school with no qualifications
1931 – Moves to France, joins a bank, gains a qualification and returns to London to work as a broker on the London Stock Exchange
1938 – Goes to Prague, at the invitation of a friend, to help refugees
1939 – Rescues 669 children by organising their transport to England, aged 29
1940 – Joins the Royal Air Force, after a period as a conscientious objector
1944-54 – Commissioned as a flying officer, relinquishing it in 1954
1947 – Begins work for the International Refugee Organisation, supervising the disposal of items looted by the Nazis and recovered by the Allies
1948 – Joins the International Bank in Paris, where he meets Grete Gjelstrup, Danish secretary. They marry later that year
1973 – Builds a sheltered housing unit for elderly people in Maidenhead. He later goes on to build two more
1983 – Receives an MBE for services to the community
1988 – Appears on ‘That’s Life’ with Esther Rantzen, after his wife finds a scrapbook in the loft detailing what he did
1991 – Awarded the Freedom of the City of Prague
1998 – Czech President Vaclav Hazel awards him the Order of TG Marsaryk
1999 – His wife Grete passes away
2002 – Knighted by the Queen on New Year’s Eve
2010 – Gets given a ‘Hero of the Holocaust’ medal by then-prime minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing St
2014 – Awarded the Order of the White Lion, Czech Republic’s highest honour
2015 – Dies in his sleep, aged 106
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