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British-Humanitarian saved from certain death. But he would never Five years after being made an MBE for his forget the 250 young people on the last train charity work, his life-saving Kindertransport scheduled to leave Prague on 1 September 1939, work of 1939 was finally revealed in 1988, when swallowed by darkness after Germany invaded the scrapbook recording his pre-war experiences Poland and closed all the borders. came to light and his remarkable story was Winton was born Nicholas Wertheim – the reported on British television. family name was changed in 1938 – in London, Knighted in 2003, Sir Nicholas eschewed the second child of a businessman. His father’s publicity. “I just saw what was going on,” Bavarian Jewish parents had settled in Britain he said, “and did what I could to help.” in the 1860s, while his Nuremberg-born mother had arrived in England in 1907. Winton and his sister were baptised in the Church of England – though in his late twenties he became an Winton at Prague Railway Nicholas Winton with Hansi Beck, one of agnostic – and he was educated at Stowe School. Station in March 1998. the children he helped to rescue. In late December 1938, Nicholas Winton, a young stockbroker, received a telephone call from a friend in Prague who had volunteered to help with the influx of refugees fleeing the Czech Sudetenland, after the Nazi invasion. After travelling to the city to offer his assistance, Winton became heavily involved in the aid operation, where he conceived the idea of moving endangered children to the UK. Working 18-hour days, he visited refugee camps, conducted interviews and compiled lists for evacuation to the UK of mainly – but not exclusively – Jewish children who As a Red Cross ambulance driver faced a terrible fate at the hands of the Nazis. during the Second World War, Three weeks later, back in London, Winton Winton was evacuated from was at the Stock Exchange by day, but by night Dunkirk, and later served in he was finding foster parents, writing reports the RAF. After the war he worked for newspapers, arranging transportation and on European reconstruction and A child’s number tag (left) lobbying governments. Some 669 children were in business. and passport (right) from the Kindertransport rescue. Left: Butler wrote many campaigning pamphlets. take her message Sue Ryder was born in Leeds, the fourth child of a camp survivors, farmer cum-landowner and his devoutly Christian the displaced, the across Europe and second wife, a voluntary social worker. Educated orphaned and the into India. Most privately at Benenden School in Kent, Ryder would unjustly punished, famously, the devout never forget the childhood visits she made to the and what began in Christian feminist, slums of Leeds with her mother – nor the “sense of Europe would become, activist, writer and pride” of their inhabitants. throughout the rest democrat was pivotal in the battle against the Soon after the Second World War broke out, of the 20th century, Contagious Diseases Acts. Enacted between Ryder joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. a global campaign. 1864 and 1869, the legislation ‘legalised’ “The war and its aftermath,” she wrote later, “have all In 1953, she established prostitution in some garrison towns in such been our teachers.” Her learning began, after a spell the Sue Ryder a way as to deny women, and particularly as a nurse, with a transfer to the Special Operations Foundation – other Josephine Butler portrait, 1851. working-class women, their civil rights. Having Executive (SOE), often driving SOE agents from organisations would been labelled prostitutes, women could be Poland to mission take-offs, which helped to develop later follow – and It was a world of double standards and hypocrisies, forcibly examined and faced imprisonment a lifelong bond with that country. In 1943 she was Sue Ryder in 1947. more than 80 homes where men legislated while voteless middle - and if they refused to submit to such treatment. posted to North Africa and then to Italy. for those suffering working-class women were subjected to inequality “Enslaved women”, Butler wrote in 1875, With the coming of peace, Ryder commenced from physical or mental problems would be set and exploitation – by men. This was Victorian would face opponents “with facts and statistics her odyssey as a social worker. In the wreckage of up worldwide. Britain, where, in the words of the charismatic, and scientific arguments... We shall tear to Germany, she campaigned on behalf of concentration In the mid 1950s, Ryder met Leonard Cheshire determined Josephine Butler, “murderous pieces their refuge of lies, and expose the VC, a hero of the Royal Air Force during wartime cruelty” was being imposed on her sex. ghastliness of their covenant with death, and and a fellow Catholic convert, who had founded Butler (née Grey) was born into the gentry their agreements with hell.” Her efforts, and the Cheshire Homes in 1948. They exchanged roles of Northumberland, though her father, a cousin those of like-minded others, led to the repeal in each other’s organisations, created the Ryder– of Earl Grey (British Prime Minister from 1830 of these unjust acts in 1886. Butler’s attention Cheshire Mission in 1958 and married in India a to 1834), was a radical and a social reformer. was also drawn to battles for women’s suffrage, year later. Together they devoted In 1852, she married George Butler, an Anglican education for women and against child their lives to their respective clergyman and university teacher. They had three prostitution. She successfully campaigned for foundations, unceasing in their sons and a daughter. the raising of the age of consent from 13 to 16. desire to provide help and support Devastated after the death of her daughter Josephine Butler was “one of the great to those in need. Sue Ryder and her husband Leonard Cheshire in 1987. In January 1979, Sue Ryder Eva in 1864, she flung herself into work improving people of the world”, commented her friend, the Right: Ryder received the OBE in 1957. life for the destitute women of Liverpool. She educator and politician Professor James Stuart. was made a life peer and took would inspire, outrage and transform society, and “The world is different because she lived.” the title ‘Baroness Ryder of Warsaw’ in tribute to the people of Poland. Nicholas Winton saved the lives Sue Ryder founded homes in the UK John Boyd Orr advocated improved of 669 Kindertransport children and Europe for people in need nutrition and global food provision £ .33 £ .33 £ .33 Eglantyne Jebb campaigned for the Joseph Rowntree championed social Josephine Butler campaigned for rights and welfare of children reform and workers’ welfare women’s rights and social reform 523 15.3.16 Royal Mail Mint Stamps Mint Mail Royal Number of stamps: six Date of issue: 15 March 2016 Design: hat-trick design Acknowledgements: Nicholas Winton © Matej Divizna/Getty Images; Sue Ryder © photograph by Snowdon/Trunk Archive; John Boyd Orr © Elliot & Fry/National Portrait Gallery, London; Eglantyne Jebb © with kind permission of Save the Children; Joseph Rowntree © Davis/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images; Josephine Butler © INTERFOTO/Sammlung Rauch/Mary Evans Picture Library Printer: International Security Printers Process: lithography Format: square Size: 35mm x 35mm Perforations: 14.5 x 14.5 Number per sheet: 30/60 Phosphor: bars as appropriate Gum: PVA Stamp designs © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2016 Pack number: 523 Design: hat-trick design Words: Nigel Fountain Acknowledgements: [TBC – all pack imagery to be credited] Printer: International Security Printers Pack design © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2016 Further details about British postage stamps and philatelic facilities may be obtained from: Royal Mail, FREEPOST, Edinburgh EH12 9PE or visit our website: www.royalmail.com/stamps. Royal Mail and the Cruciform are registered Trade Marks of Royal Mail Group Ltd © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2016. All rights reserved. To send any feedback on the design and content of this product, please email: [email protected] strict definition of charitable work; and the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust had responsibility for building respectable but affordable housing for the working classes in the garden village of New Earswick in York and elsewhere. The Quaker philanthropist rejected emotional responses to social crises. That there was poverty was obvious, Rowntree reasoned, but he wanted to identify the causes of such evils – and how they Born into a prosperous and could be eliminated. There would ultimately be distinguished Quaker family four trusts, and their work, born in Edwardian in York, Joseph Rowntree was Rowntree in 1852. England, resonate educated at Bootham School across time and before starting a six-year apprenticeship at his Residents of the garden village of New Earswick space, far beyond father’s grocery store in 1852. After building Rowntree’s home city, in York gather together for a gala, c.1907/8. up valuable business experience over the next and continue to this few years, in 1869 he became a partner in his day. Adult education, younger brother’s confectionery company where he But he also identified one remorseless enemy research into social helped to transform both the firm’s fortunes and, – “selfish and unscrupulous wealth”. Concerned change, progressive perhaps most significantly, the well-being of that he was in possession of too much money, in housing – both in its employees, with the introduction of welfare 1904 he used half of his wealth to set up three theory and, at New programmes, medical services, pension schemes trusts: the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Earswick,in practice and sick benefits for the workforce. was created to give support to social research, – became just part “Healthful conditions are not luxuries to be adult education and the Society of Friends; the of the long and far- adopted or disposed of at will,” he proclaimed.
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