Alf Dubs

Alfred Dubs, Baron Dubs of Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth is a United Kingdom politician.

Dubs was Labour MP for Battersea South and later Battersea 1979 to 1987. From 1988 to 1995 he was Director of the Refugee Council. He was appointed a Labour Working Peer in 1994. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office from May 1997 to December 1999.

Whilst Dubs was an MP, John O'Farrell worked in his office and was a Labour activist in Battersea.

Lord Dubs has served on an Area Health Authority and more recently on a Mental Health Trust. He was Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission until December 2003 and had previously been Deputy Chair of the Independent Television Commission. He is a Trustee of the Open University Foundation.

In the past, he has been a local Councillor, Chair of the Fabian Society, Chair of Liberty, a Trustee of Action Aid, a Trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service and of a number of other voluntary organisations.

Born in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, Dubs was one of 669 Czech, mainly Jewish, children saved by English stockbroker Nicholas Winton from the Nazis on the 'kinder transport'. He only discovered that he was one of the "Winton children" a few years ago after a relative saw his name on a television programme by Esther Rantzen. He has a clear memory of leaving Prague station at the age of six and not touching the food pack given to him by his mother for the next two days. But he had no idea who masterminded his escape. He has written and broadcast extensively on the subject, campaigning for Winton to be honoured. Winton was later knighted for his actions.