Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE (né Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany.

Born to German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II.

[2] In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia".

Though a stockbroker, Winton was also "an ardent socialist who became close to Labour Party luminaries Aneurin Bevan, Jennie Lee and Tom Driberg".

[14] Through another socialist friend, Martin Blake, Winton became part of a left-wing circle opposed to appeasement and concerned about the dangers posed by the Nazis.

Following a call for help from Marie Schmolka and Doreen Warriner,[17] he decided instead to visit Prague and help Martin Blake,[9] who was in Prague as an associate of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia,[18] then in the process of being occupied by Germany, and had called Winton to ask him to assist in Jewish welfare work.

[19] Alongside the Czechoslovak Refugee Committee, the British and Canadian volunteers such as Winton, Trevor Chadwick, and Beatrice Wellington worked in organising to aid children from families at risk from the Nazis.

[17] In November 1938, following Kristallnacht in Nazi-ruled Germany, the House of Commons approved a measure to allow the entry into Britain of refugees younger than 17, provided they had a place to stay and a warranty of £50 (equivalent to £4,033 in 2023)[22] was deposited per person for their eventual return to their own country.

[23] An important obstacle was getting official permission to cross into the Netherlands, as the children were to embark on the ferry at The Hook of Holland.

[29] By coincidence, the names of the London and North Eastern Railway steamers which operated the Harwich to The Hook of Holland route included the Prague and the Vienna; the former can be seen in a 1938 Pathé Newsreel.

[31][32][33] Winton acknowledged the vital roles in Prague of Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick,[34] Nicholas Stopford, Beatrice Wellington,[35] Josephine Pike and Bill Barazetti (1914–2000),[36] who were the people who organized the evacuation of refugees, including the children, from Czechoslovakia.

[38][47] Following the outbreak of World War II, Winton declined to be conscripted into the British Army, applying successfully for registration as a conscientious objector, and later served with the Red Cross.

Robin's death from meningitis on the day before his sixth birthday affected Winton greatly and he founded a local support organisation which became Maidenhead Mencap.

[56] In an interview on the BBC radio programme The Life Scientific, Simon Wessely described how his father Rudi, one of the rescued children, had a chance encounter with Winton.

The host of the programme, Esther Rantzen, introduced Winton to children he had helped to rescue, including Vera Gissen.

[60] Rantzen then asked if anyone present was the child or grandchild of one of the children Winton saved, and the rest of the audience stood.

[61] He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2003 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel[62] at Winton House, an Abbeyfield Society care home in Windsor, Berkshire, named in his honour.

Despite widespread praise for his work, two scholars have attempted to highlight that his accomplishments were a group effort, writing about the situation "....We should not reduce the account to just one saint.

[65][66] To celebrate his 100th birthday, Winton flew over the White Waltham Airfield in a microlight piloted by Judy Leden, the daughter of one of the boys he saved.

[69] Winton died in his sleep from cardiac arrest on the morning of 1 July 2015 at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, having been admitted a week earlier following a deterioration in his health.

[70][71] Winton was cremated and his ashes were buried at Braywick Cemetery in Maidenhead, Berkshire alongside his wife Grete and son Robin.

[78] Winton was awarded the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Fourth Class, by the Czech President Václav Havel in 1998.

[80][81] Winton was not declared a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel because only non-Jews who risk their lives to save Jews are eligible for that honor.

[93] The occasion marked the 70th anniversary of the final intended Kindertransport arranged by Winton, due to set off on 1 September 1939 but prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War that very day.

"[96][99] On 22 April 2016, a remembrance quarter peal was rung and a new method named Sir Nicholas Winton Delight by bellringers of the Whiting Society of Ringers.

[101] On 19 May 2016, a memorial service for Winton was held at London's Guildhall, attended by some 400 people, including 28 of those he saved, and Czech, Slovak and UK government representatives.

[102] On 20 May, military charity Glen Art presented a memorial concert celebrating Winton's life with Jason Isaacs, Rupert Graves and Alexander Baillie, at St John's, Smith Square.

[110] Winton's story was told by David Suchet as part of the 2022 Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, which aired on PBS in December 2023.

[115] Sir Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn play an elderly and young Winton respectively in the biopic One Life, directed by James Hawes and produced by See-Saw Films.