Trevor Chadwick: Statue of 'Purbeck Schindler' put up in Swanage

Swanage residents were given a glimpse of the statue before it was formally due to be unveiled at 15:00 BST

A statue has been erected of a British war hero compared with Oskar Schindler for his efforts to save hundreds of children destined for Nazi death camps.

Trevor Chadwick helped Sir Nicholas Winton rescue 669 youngsters from Czechoslovakia ahead of World War Two.

He was dubbed the "Purbeck Schindler" in reference to him being from Purbeck in Dorset, and the statue is being erected in his hometown of Swanage.

The 360kg bronze statue is due to be formally unveiled at 15:00 BST.

Trevor Chadwick helped rescue 669 children from Czechoslovakia

The efforts of Mr Chadwick and Sir Nicholas were not publicly known for almost 50 years despite being likened to celebrated German industrialist Schindler, whose bravery saving 1,200 children was documented in Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List in 1993.

Local sculptor Moira Purver's work has been erected onto a base next to Swanage's bandstand and was built following a fundraising effort by the Trevor Chadwick Memorial Trust.

Ms Purver said the statue was designed to portray the "incredibly kind" and "very generous" character of Mr Chadwick.

"He made children and parents laugh, he had an amazingly unusual character, and so the idea is to celebrate that," she added.

The clay model has been used to create the cast for the statue

The statue features a child sleeping on Mr Chadwick as a reminder of when he calmed down a one-year-old baby on a plane.

John Corben, from the Trevor Chadwick Memorial Trust, said the aim of the statue was to highlight "the futility of the war and the suffering it causes".

"But it will also be something that people in the future will look at and they will say he was a brave man and saved these children," he added.

Mr Chadwick, who died in 1979 aged 72, worked with Sir Nicholas, among others, to find British families willing to put up £50 to look after children in their homes.

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.