Winter in Prague’: The humanitarian mission of Doreen Warriner

JR JOURNAL august 2011 continued opposite When St Hugh’s College, Oxford wrote an obituary of their student, Professor Doreen Warriner OBE, who died on 17 December 1972, they observed that ‘For all her distinction and learning she remained modest and unaffected.’ Nowhere was this more so than where her humanitarian mission in Prague is concerned, for she was responsible for saving the lives of an untold number of men, women and children between October 1938 and April 1939. Even though she was awarded an OBE in 1942 in recognition of her refugee work, she remained silent about her life-saving exploits and achievements. Even today, her role as a refugee activist is largely unrecognised, and what is known owes much to the determination of her sister