Women in Focus: Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines

This February our Women in Focus series presents a very special speaker: Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines. During her talk, Lady Milena will share her life-long experiences including her recollection of WWII and Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport from Prague to London, her early days in a new country and her rich professional career that led her from business to education and charity work. Lady Milena will also discuss her first memorable encounter with Sir Nicholas Winton at BBC studios and how their relationships gradually evolved into a genuine friendship.

ABOUT LADY MILENA GRENFELL-BAINES

Born Milena Fleischmannová in Prague, young Milena grew up in the Chrudim district in a family with close ties to the Czech artistc scene. When she was three, Milena’s mother died in childbirth and her father soon remarried. In July of 1939, nine-year-old Milena and her three-year-old half sister left Prague on what became the last kinder transport train to the United Kingdom organised by Nicholas Winton. The girls stayed with a foster family in Ashton-under-Lyne and Milena attended a local school there before moving on to attend The Czechoslovak State School established by the Czech government in exile in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales.

After the war, Milena trained as a children’s nurse and in 1954 married British architect and urban planner Sir George Grenfell-Baines. Following a brief holiday in France, Lady Milena’s career took a different turn when she was offered a role as a cookery interpreter, starting her long career in the cookery business. Known to many as ‘Lady Remoska’, Milena is credited for introducing the Czech cook pan Remoska to the British market.

Another significant event in Lady Milena’s life was her meeting with Sir Nicholas Winton during the BBC Programme ‘That’s Life’. Disclosing Winton’s involvement in the saving of 669 children from Czechoslovakia before the outbreak of WW2, the programme arranged for many of those children to attend the live screening, Milena being one of them.

Throughout her life, Lady Milena has been actively involved in Czech-British cultural and social relations and pursued her life-long interest in classical music. She has been awarded a number of honours both in Czechia and the UK, including the Jan Masaryk Gratias Agit and MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). For the last 10 years, she has been giving talks at schools on behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The Q&A was chaired by journalist Ivan Kytka.

 

Talk + Q&A took place on Tue 27th February 2024 at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

 

More information about up-coming events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

 

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