British Holocaust hero Nicholas Winton honoured by stamps

Sir Nicholas Winton is credited with rescuing 669 Czech children from the Nazis

A British man who saved hundreds of children from the Holocaust is to be honoured on Royal Mail stamps.

Sir Nicholas Winton, from Berkshire, arranged for eight trains to carry 669 mainly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to London in 1939.

He will feature on a set of commemorative postage stamps after more than 105,000 people backed a campaign launched by Jewish News.

The stamps will be released in 2016.

A petition, launched by Jewish News, argued the stamps would be a "fitting tribute" to Sir Nicholas, who died last month aged 106.

It included signatures from Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, former Conservative minister Eric Pickles and Birmingham Edgbaston Labour MP Gisela Stuart.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "One of the purposes of Royal Mail stamps is to honour those who have made important contributions to the UK, and every year we consider hundreds of subjects for inclusion. It is clear that Sir Nicholas Winton is a worthy candidate."

Justin Cohen, news editor of the Jewish News, said: "Sir Nicholas shied away from the 'hero' label but we could think of no-one more deserving of this rare honour.

"His inspirational story shows that one person truly can make a difference and we hope the stamp will bring his heroic efforts to the attention of even more people."

Sir Nicholas, from a German-Jewish family, told no one about his pre-war efforts for half a century, even his wife.

He was reunited with some of the children on Esther Rantzen's That's Life TV programme in 1988, after his wife Grete found an old briefcase in the attic with lists of children and letters from their parents.

There is a statue of Sir Nicholas, who lived near Maidenhead, at the town's railway station and he was knighted by the Queen in 2003.

Nicholas Winton photographed with one of the children he rescued in 1939