Lancashire Post helps long-lost wartime schoolmates reunite after almost 80 years

After almost 80 years, two former alumni of a wartime Czechoslovak school in the 1940s have been reconnected with a helping hand from the Lancashire Post.
Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines (left) with Sir Nicholas Winton (centre)Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines (left) with Sir Nicholas Winton (centre)
Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines (left) with Sir Nicholas Winton (centre)

Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, who lives in Preston, and Sydney Glass, who resides in Dublin, both attended the Czechoslovak State Boarding School established the Czech government in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales to educate the Czechoslovak children who had to be evacuated from mainland Europe at the outbreak of World War II.

Coming to the UK in 1939, Lady Milena was one of 669 refugee children saved from the Nazis by the legendary Sir Nicholas Winton, who managed to organise for seven trains carrying almost 700 Jewish Czechoslovak children to travel to Britain along the Kindertransport route. Tragically, 16,000 other Czechoslovak children were murdered in concentration camps.

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Just prior to war being declared, Sydney had moved with his family to Castlebar in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland and himself attended the school in the '40s. Assuming he was the last surviving former student from the school, the now almost-90-year-old Sydney was taken aback when he learned of Lady Milena's story and was moved to contact the Post to try and get in touch with her.

Lady Milena in January of this yearLady Milena in January of this year
Lady Milena in January of this year

"I more or less assumed that, after 80 years or so, I am 'the Last of the Mohicans' and am glad to note that I am not; this now-Irishman [was] bowled over with the information," wrote Sydney. "I do hope that Lady Milena will not think of me as being totally presumptuous. I would love to say hello to her after all these years and also hope that this message will find Lady Milena healthy and well and, like a good Rolls, still 'firing on all cylinders'."

With Lady Milena having agreed to speak with Sydney over the phone, the two enjoyed 'a nice, long talk' in her words, as the pair were reunited after almost eight decades. With a list of former students at the Czechoslovak State Boarding School in her possession, Lady Milena was able to locate Sydney's name on the list alongside that of his then-best friend, Rene Braun, whom the pair are now trying to track down in London.

The school is now an outdoor activity centre called Manor Adventure but, in recognition of the building's rich wartime history, the current owner still gives out copies of Lady Milena's fellow Kindertransport survivor Vera Gissing’s book ‘Pearls of Childhood', which references her time at the school.

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"My thanks to Lady Milena for being so brave as to phone me," wrote Sydney following the reunion. "By the way, she must think I am a dummy as she caught me on the hop as I hardly knew what to say to her! Please forgive me if I sounded a little rude or gauche and, once again, my thanks to Lady Milena for reopening this 'lost period' of my life."

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