Hanus Snabl, who died at the beginning of the month while on holiday abroad, was one of the last Jewish children rescued from Czechoslovkia after the Nazis had invaded the country. He was one of nearly 700 children brought to Britain by the man recently dubbed "Britain's Schindler" -  Nicholas Winton, then a Stock Exchange clerk. Like the other children, Snabl arrived at Liverpool Street station with a name tag round his neck and was looked after by an English family. Later he went to a school in Wales specially set up by the Czechoslovak Government in exile for refugee children. Their Maths and Physics teacher was the father of Milada Haigh, for many years a commentaries writer in Current Affairs Talks, WS.  Fellow pupils included Karel Reisz, later afamous film director, Joe Schlesinger, leading correspondent for CBC and Alf (now Lord) Dubs, a Labour minister. They never saw their families again.

Their story only hit the headlines a few years ago when Snabl and Winton and others who had escaped appeared on the Esther Rantzen show.

It was also the basis of the film  "All My Loved Ones". Snabl was the person who kept everyone in touch with each other and helped organise re-unions.

After the war, he returned to Czechoslovakia, but after the Communist takeover in 1948 he, like others who spent time in the West, was sent to the uranium mines as a political prisoner.

Later he became a prominent motoring journalist but decided he had to leave, arriving in Britain in the early 1960s. During the Soviet led invasion in 1968, Snabl was one of the unseen people prompting "experts" on BBC TV news among other outlets saying what was on demonstrators banners and what people were chanting at Soviet troops.

He joined the Czech Service of the BBC and did a weekly Technical Notebook and motoring programmes.

His wife, Tania, was for many years a Programme Assistant in the Slovak Section.

thank you for remembering our father.

vera and martin snabl