Nicholas Winton

Sir Nicholas George Winton was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue Jewish children who were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. 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, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children needing rescue and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport.

19 May 1909

Born on the same birth day (19 May): Bill Laimbeer • Brandon Inge • Charles Weston, 3rd Earl of Portland • Gregory Poirier • Harry W. Brown (pilot) • Helmut Braunlich • Ho Chi Minh • Johann Gottlieb Fichte • Kevin Garnett • Michael Che • Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor • Nia Zulkarnaen • Oliver Letwin • Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour • Trevor Peacock

Born in the same month (May 1909): Adolfo López Mateos • Alfred Kubel • Art Coulter • Bob Dyer • Clara Solovera • Edwin H. Land • Endel Puusepp • Fred Perry • Freddie Frith • Gordon Bunshaft • Jacques Canetti • James Mason • Juan Vicente Pérez • Julius Sumner Miller • Ken Darby • Margaret Mee • Margaret Sullavan • Matt Busby • Red Horner • Wilbur Mills • Yiannis Ritsos