105-Year-Old British Man Who Saved 669 Children From The Nazis Receives Highest Czech Honour

Sir Nicholas Winton received the Order of the White Lion from Czech president Miloš Zeman on Tuesday.

In 1939, when he was 29 years old, Winton helped hundreds of children, the majority of whom were Jewish, flee Czechoslovakia by train, and arranged for foster families to meet them upon their arrival in London, the BBC reported.

Upon accepting the honour, Winton said: "I want to thank you all for this enormous expression of thanks for something which happened to me nearly 100 years ago – and a 100 years is a heck of a long time."

"I thank the British people for making room for them, to accept them, and of course the enormous help given by so many of the Czechs who were at that time doing what they could to fight the Germans and to try to get the children out."

Winton kept his actions a secret for over 50 years until his wife found a scrapbook with details of the evacuation.

The newspaper said there are believed to be around 6,000 people across the world descended from the children he saved.