Wartime weekend marks journey of 'Winton children'

LADY Milena Grenfell-Baines was just nine years old in 1939 when she was put on a train with her sister and cousin in Prague and sent to safety in England.

The young refugee was among hundreds of children whose lives were saved thanks to Sir Nicholas Winton who arranged their safe passage from Czechoslovakia to Britain and other countries before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Yesterday, Lady Milena joined her saviour's daughter, Barbara Winton, 56, and children from Stanbury Primary School in West Yorkshire as the youngsters re-enacted the journey of the "Winton children".

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The traditional child evacuation re-enactment, part of the annual Haworth wartime weekend, this year paid tribute to Sir Nicholas, who will be 101 years old on Wednesday.

The two women travelled with the schoolchildren by steam train from Keighley to Haworth, as they re-enacted the emotional journeys from Prague to London in 1939.

Lady Milena, 80, of Preston, recalled being given an autograph book in which her grandfather wrote a message to her on the night of her departure.

"He said, 'remain faithful to the country you are leaving, your grandparents and your parents who love you very much,'" she said.

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Sir Nicholas, a former stockbroker, laid on eight trains for what became known as the Czech Kinderstransport to take the youngsters to London.

After the war, however, their story was forgotten until Sir Nicholas's wife Greta uncovered his records in an attic and contacted the children whose names were listed.

Lady Milena said: "When we found Nicholas Winton 25 years ago none of us knew anything about how we got to England because at the time you did not enquire – because we were all children, some were teenagers.

"I was lucky. My father was here and my mother escaped in 1940. Most of the children lost their parents. I lost my grandparents and my cousins. They were sent to the camps and they died in the camps."

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