Sir Nicholas Winton: 1909-2015 – Timeline

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