Trevor Chadwick statue: 'Purbeck Schindler' model complete

The finished model will be used to create the cast for the statue

A sculptor has unveiled the life-sized clay model of a statue to honour a man who saved hundreds of children destined for Nazi concentration camps.

Trevor Chadwick, dubbed the Purbeck Schindler, helped Sir Nicholas Winton rescue 669 children from Czechoslovakia ahead of World War Two.

Moira Purver has completed the model from which the sculpture will be cast.

The finished statue will be placed next to the bandstand in Mr Chadwick's home town of Swanage, Dorset, next year.

Ms Purver, who lives in the town, said: "It's a celebration of the fact that he went back and forwards to Prague for month after month and brought back 669 children.

"He wasn't a formal man by any stretch of the imagination, he hated wearing suits, which is why he's wearing these fishermen trousers and jumper."

On Monday, part of the sculpture which features a child will be taken to the Talos Art Foundry in Quarley, near Andover in Hampshire, while another mould maker will work on the main part of the statue in the studio.

Mr Chadwick helped rescue 669 children from Czechoslovakia

The Trevor Chadwick Memorial Trust has been raising the £80,000 needed for the memorial, which has been backed by Swanage Town Council.

Mr Chadwick, who died in 1979 aged 72, worked with Sir Nicholas, Doreen Warriner, Nicholas Stopford, Beatrice Wellington, Josephine Pike and Bill Barazetti to find British families willing to put up £50 to look after children in their homes.

Their efforts were not publicly known for almost 50 years and have been likened to that of Oskar Schindler.

Though Sir Nicholas was knighted in March 2003, he said Mr Chadwick, who stayed in Prague to organise the evacuations, had been the real hero.

Mr Chadwick was born in Swanage but spent most of his life in Oslo, Norway, with his German wife Sigrid.