Catalyst of Courage: Grete Winton and the Family Behind a Lifesaving Story

Basic Information

Early Life and Marriage

Grete Gjelstrup was born on 21 December 1919 in the Danish town of Vejle, a port set among fjords and forests. As Europe rebuilt after the Second World War, she worked as a secretary—accounts describe her meeting the British stockbroker Nicholas Winton in Paris during those post-war years. Their paths crossed at the intersection of the ordinary and the extraordinary: routine office work and the fading echoes of a continent in recovery.

They married on 31 October 1948 in Vejle and embarked on a shared life that would be lived mostly outside the spotlight. The couple spent time in Paris before settling in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where they raised three children. Their home life was not a stage for grand speeches or medals; it was the gentle cadence of a family that cooked, wrote letters, and paid bills like any other—yet kept, tucked away, a story with the power to change how the world remembered a slice of history.

Family and Personal Relationships

Grete’s life is best understood as a family tapestry—tightly woven, sometimes frayed, always human.

• Spouse: Sir Nicholas (George) Winton (1909–2015)
  • A British humanitarian whose 1938–39 work helped arrange the rescue of hundreds of children from Czechoslovakia to Britain. For decades, he rarely spoke about it at home.
• Children:
  • Nicholas (“Nick”) Winton
    • Known publicly through occasional appearances and commemorations related to his father’s story.
  • Robin Winton
    • Born with Down’s syndrome, he died of meningitis just before his sixth birthday. His short life prompted deep local involvement by the family in support of people with learning disabilities, including work that helped strengthen Maidenhead Mencap.
  • Barbara Ann Winton (1953–2022)
    • An author and advocate who wrote a biography of her father and dedicated herself to stewarding the family’s historical memory.

Family Overview Table

The Scrapbook That Changed History

Every archive has its guardian. In the late 1980s, Grete found an old scrapbook in the attic—pages filled with lists of names, addresses, photographs, and notes from 1938–39. It was a ledger of lives: the children Nicholas had helped to bring out of Czechoslovakia as Nazi power advanced. In numbers, the work is striking—669 children were ultimately rescued through a network Nicholas helped build. In human terms, it was a constellation of futures: doctors, teachers, parents, and grandparents who might otherwise have been lost.

Grete did not tuck the book back into a box. She brought it to the attention of researchers, notably Elisabeth Maxwell, who helped open a door to public recognition. The scrapbook became a conduit—leading to articles, inquiries, and in 1988, a BBC broadcast on That’s Life! that staged one of television’s most moving reunions. In a single studio, an unassuming Englishman who had kept his story quiet for decades found himself surrounded by adult survivors—the very children whose names had once been written, in Grete’s attic book, in careful ink.

The image is unforgettable: a private life turned inside out, not for spectacle, but for memory and truth. Grete set that light in motion.

Life in Maidenhead and Community Work

The Winton household in Maidenhead was anchored by routine and resilience. After Robin’s death, the family’s energies bent toward community involvement. Sir Nicholas channelled grief into action, helping to organize local support for people with learning disabilities. Grete’s role was steady and sustaining—mother, partner, organizer—shaping the conditions under which a grieving family could turn outward and build something helpful for others.

She rarely appears in headlines as a separate public figure. That absence is telling, but not empty. It suggests a kind of everyday leadership—arranging the family calendar, caring for children, stitching the plain cloth of days that allowed bigger acts of remembrance and service to take shape.

Timeline

In Popular Culture and Media

While Grete did not cultivate a public persona, her act of preservation shaped the narrative of a century. The scrapbook’s emergence in the late 1980s catalyzed reporting, documentaries, and the now-famous 1988 television reunion. Decades later, the feature film One Life (released internationally in 2023–2024) drew new audiences to the story—holding up not only the wartime rescue but also the long hush that followed, and the family moment that finally brought it to the surface.

In this arc, Grete is the hinge. She is neither the architect of the 1938–39 operation nor its most public narrator. She is the person who opened the attic, lifted a lid, and changed the angle of the world’s gaze. History often turns not only on the hero who acts, but on the witness who keeps, notices, and shares. Grete did all three.

The Texture of a Private Life

To describe Grete solely as “Nicholas Winton’s wife” is technically accurate but emotionally incomplete. She was Danish by birth, pragmatic by habit, and—if the family and public record are a guide—resolute in the quiet arts of care and order. She raised three children, faced the aching loss of one, and made a home that sheltered an elderly husband whose name, late in life, would be known across continents.

Numbers help fix her in time—1919, 1948, 1988, 1999—but do not capture the grain of her days. That lies in details: a carton of papers saved, a conversation begun, a decision to consult someone who might grasp the significance of a faded notebook. The butterfly effect of that choice reached thousands—the rescued, their descendants, and the many who found in the Winton story a moral compass set toward courage.

FAQ

Who was Grete Winton?

A Danish-born woman (1919–1999) who married Sir Nicholas Winton and later discovered the scrapbook that revealed his 1938–39 Kindertransport rescue work.

When and where was she born?

She was born on 21 December 1919 in Vejle, Denmark.

When did she die, and where?

She died on 28 August 1999 in Slough, Berkshire, England.

How did she meet Nicholas Winton?

Accounts place their meeting in the post-war years in Paris, where she worked as a secretary.

What role did she play in revealing the Kindertransport story?

In the late 1980s she found Nicholas’s scrapbook and brought it to researchers, sparking media coverage and a 1988 BBC reunion broadcast.

How many children did Grete and Nicholas have?

They had three children: Nicholas (“Nick”), Robin, and Barbara.

What happened to their son Robin?

Robin, who had Down’s syndrome, died of meningitis shortly before his sixth birthday.

Did Grete have a separate public career?

She is primarily recorded as a secretary in her early years and as a family anchor; her public visibility centers on the scrapbook discovery.

Where did the family live?

After time in Paris, they settled in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.

Is Grete featured in recent films or media?

While not always depicted as a separate lead character, her pivotal discovery is referenced in modern retellings, including the 2023–2024 feature film One Life.