A special commemorative stamp honouring a former Hampstead resident who saved 669 children from the Nazis has been issued by Royal Mail today after a campaign backed by more than 100,000 people.

Sir Nicholas Winton, dubbed ‘the British Schindler’, died in July aged 106 and appears on the stamp released today.

Royal Mail announced the release after an online petition calling for the stamp attracted close to 106,000 signatures.

As reported in the Ham&High, among the signatories was Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq, JW3 chief executive Raymond Simonson and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

Following Sir Nicholas’s death on July 1, Prime Minister David Cameron led tributes to the former stockbroker who famously saved the lives of hundreds of children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia at the outbreak of war.

As founder of the Czech Kindertransport operation, he organised eight trains to carry 669 children to London in 1939 and found them foster families, amid fears they would be sent to concentration camps – a fact he kept hidden from his family until 1988.

The black and white image – part of a set of six featuring British humanitarians – was taken in 2014 when Sir Nicholas collected the Czech Republic’s highest accolade in Prague, two years before he passed away.

Karen Pollock MBE, chief executive of Holocaust Educational Trust, who backed the campaign started by the Jewish newspaper Jewish News, said today: “Sir Nicholas Winton was a true hero of our time and it is fantastic that Royal Mail is recognising this remarkable man in such a special way.

“The Holocaust Educational Trust is thrilled that this commemorative stamp is now available for everyone to purchase and spread the story of Sir Nicholas’s extraordinary selflessness far and wide.”

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, United Nations special envoy for global education “Sir Nicholas Winton was a true British hero. It was a great privilege to know him and in 2010 to be able to present him with a British Hero of the Holocaust award in recognition of what he and others did to save so many lives during the darkest of times and in the face of the worst atrocities. I am delighted that the Royal Mail has chosen to honour him and that his legacy lives on for generations to come through the work of organisations such as the Holocaust Educational Trust.”

The stamp is available to purchase here