A CZECH refugee was rescued by Nicolas Winton and brought to Randwick where he grew up.

Rene Prisker is now 93 and living in Paris but his early life was very different.

Rene was one of 669 children rescued fro the Nazis by Nicholas Winton whose life was recently dramatized in the hit film One Life.

Rene was an eight-year-old who was rescued by aeroplane from Prague and fostered by a family in Randwick.

He attended Marling School where he did excellently and completed his school certificate aged 16 in 1946.

The Wehner family took in the young Rene and he thrived under their fostership.

Helen Wehner said: "On 14 March 1939 he moved into the vicarage with George Wehner, the vicar of Randwick, his wife Kathleen (Kate) and their three children who were still at home.

"He was a small, bewildered child of 8 who spoke no English. Two weeks later he was enrolled in Marling School. Despite his initial lack of English he did well at school and stayed at Marling until completing his School Certificate aged 16 in 1946.

"By this time his father, who had, against the odds, survived the war, was living in France and René, somewhat reluctantly, left England to live with him.

"René says that he owes his life to three people. Nicholas Winton for arranging his evacuation, his mother for her bravery in sending her only child away not knowing whether she would ever she him again (she didn’t) and George Wehner who offered a home to an unknown foreign child of a different faith.

"Despite spending his adult life in France, René has always remained a much loved member of the Wehner family of which he is now the patriarch, George, Kate and their four natural children, including my father Andrew, having all died.

"I had lunch with René, his three children and three of his six grandchildren in France last month.

"That’s 10 lives which would have been lost or never realised without the efforts of Nicholas Winton and the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia in 1939.

"Having seen the film himself a few days ago, René phoned me to suggest that I shared his details with the Stroud News as there might be people interested in his story. He does not want anyone to contact him directly but is happy for me to be a go-between if anyone remembers him or has any further information.

"I know that during the war my grandparents also provided a home for relatives who were escaping the bombing in Coventry.

"What I didn’t know until René told me recently is that as well as supporting him they also housed a three people who had escaped from Germany: a married couple from Berlin and another young woman (although she was later interned as an “enemy alien” on the Isle of Man.) That’s another story but maybe it’s just as well the vicarage was spacious!"