EVERY family has its history but for one county woman, her past includes one of the most poignant tales of the century.

Barbara Winton’s father, 105-year-old Sir Nicholas Winton, organised the rescue of 669, mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War.

Sir Nicholas recently received the Czech Republic’s highest honour – the Order of the White Lion – at an official ceremony.

But while his outstanding humanitarian achievements cannot be ignored, there is much more to Sir Winton.

And it has been unveiled in his daughter’s book, If it’s Not Impossible - his motto for life – which was released this year.

Ms Winton, who lives in Broxwood, near Leominster, told the Hereford Times: “The book took me three years to write, having started it around 2011. It was an idea that had been in my head for a while.

“I wanted to do it because there had been a lot of articles written about my father focusing on 1939 and what he did then and I felt it would be interesting for me to explore his whole life – not just to show what else he had done but to explore the early influences.”

Mrs Winton, 61, explored this past by conducting interviews with her father as well as his friends and colleagues.

The mother-of-two also spent some time searching through letters, documents, old diaries and old photographs.

“We all learned some quite amazing stuff about our family history,” she said.

His parents were German- Jewish and lived through the First World War, escaping Germany in the 1930s.

Born in London, Sir Nicholas went on to be an ardent socialist who was close to Labour party luminaries such as Aneurin Bevan.

Sir Nicholas is often referred to as the “British Schindler”. While his daughter admits she can understand the association, it is not a “useful” comparison as the two had very different lives.

His actions in 1939 mean that there are around 6,000 people in the world today who owe their lives to him.

He identified a number of British foster families to open their home to the children and organised eight evacuations on the Czech Kindertransport train from Prague to London.

“There was a ninth train due to come out but that’s when Germany invaded Poland so it didn’t happen,” said Ms Winton.

“That’s a very sad part of the story. Those children were sent home and nearly all of them ended up in concentration camps.”

Her father’s story came to light in 1988 after a scrapbook, containing documents and photographs, was obtained by the BBC and he appeared on the TV show, That’s Life, where he was reunited with a number of those he saved.

And while Ms Winton says she always knew about what he had done, it was not a subject that he would often talk about.

“We knew about it but it wasn’t something we would dwell on,” she said.

But there has always been a strong link with the Czech Republic, where Sir Nicholas is considered a national hero.

Last month he received the Order of the White Lion – the Czech Republic’s highest honour.

Ms Winton said: “There were eight of “his” Czech children there in the room with him and he was also given an award from the school which is named after him.”

• The book can be bought online at amazon.co.uk