The original 'Winton Train' commemoration in 2009 - Tony Lord
On 31
st December 1938 a 29-year-old stock broker, Nicholas Winton, boarded a plane to Prague, having just taken a decision to cancel a two week skiing holiday to Switzerland. This decision - and the events that followed - has resulted in there being around 5,500 to 7,000 people alive today who, were it not for the actions of this 29 year old and others, would almost certainly not be here today.
Sir Nicholas Winton MBE is credited for saving the lives of 669 Czech children, though in reality it was very much a team effort. This enterprise was part of a much larger operation which brought a recorded 9,354 unaccompanied mostly jewish children to the UK between 2
nd December 1938 and 2
nd September 1939. They came from mainly Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Austria in an operation which has become known as the 'Kindertransport' and the vast majority are believed to have arrived via the LNER's Hook of Holland to Harwich ferry service.
Sir Nicholas Winton - Tony Lord
Winton passed away on 1
st July 2015 at the age of 106 on the 76
th anniversary to the day of the arrival in Harwich and London (on 1
st July 1939) of his largest single transport of 241 children. On Friday 1st July 2016, the first anniversary of his passing and the 77th anniversary of the arrival in Harwich of his largest single transport, the annual Harwich children's carnival will feature more than 1000 local schoolchildren with an appropriate theme. A Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance will be held in the St Nicholas Church in Harwich and an RAF fly-past has been requested, Winton worked for the RAF for 5 years during and after WW2.
A number of special trains are planned to run to Harwich, one of which, provisionally named 'The Harwich Pullman' is proposed to comprise
Tornado hauling the Belmond British Pullman, the only train still certificated for the main line which includes carriages actually in service in 1938/9 at the time of the Kindertransporte. There is a bitter irony that Sir Nicholas passed away at a time when Europe is challenged by its worst refugee crisis since WW2 and this irony was not lost on the great man himself. All proceeds from the special trains and events of 1
st July 2016 beyond purely operational costs will go to help those - and especially children - who find themselves displaced or uprooted by discrimination, war or threat of war in the 21
st Century, of whom there are sadly far too many. The Nicholas Winton Foundation is supporting specific projects to help refugee children, including Theirworld (www.theirworld.org)
.
Friday 1st July 2016
'The Harwich Pullman' - London Victoria 08:45 - Harwich Town 11:50
Harwich Town - Manningtree - Harwich Town x4 shuttles
Harwich Town - Ipswich - Manningtree - Harwich Parkeston Quay (International) shuttle
Harwich Parkeston Quay (International) 19:30 - London Victoria 22:32
Note: timings approximate and may be subject to change
Tickets for both London Pullman legs scheduled to go on sale from Monday 14th March, via the Papyrus website. The date is the anniversary of 14th March 1939, last day of freedom in Czechoslovakia. The Nazis walked into Prague - virtually unopposed - on 15th March 1939 - and with it was extinguished another 'light' in free Europe and the inexorable march towards war.
Ticket cost will be £241* (plus £50** for a guarantee/priority on the evening dinner Pullman, rather than morning) for one-way Pullman, one-way by Mk III VIP charter, options are:
Option A: Depart London Victoria 08:45hrs with Breakfast on the Belmond British Pullman, arrive Harwich Town 11:50hrs; return by Mk III VIP charter arriving Liverpool Street 17:44hrs.
Option B: Depart London Liverpool St 10:27hrs by Mk III VIP charter, returning from Harwich Parkeston Quay at 19:30hrs with Dinner on the Belmond British Pullman arrive Victoria 22:32hrs.
*
- symbolic as £1 for each life saved on Winton's largest single transport which arrived Harwich on 1st July 1939 with 241 children.
** - symbolic as the same amount required by the UK government from each foster family as a bond to cover the costs of eventual repatriation.
For more information on this or to support this project please see: www.papyrus-rail.com/kt77.html