Dame Stephanie Shirley CH: Transcript of Audio Recording

Description

In 1939, 5yr old Vera Buchthal escaped Nazi persecution only after her parents had made the courageous and selfless decision to place her and 9yr old sister on a Kindertransport train in Vienna bound for Britain. Unaccompanied, they arrived as refugees in the West Midlands, completely alone, not knowing what to expect.

In this audio recording Vera (better known today as Dame Stephanie Shirley CH), recounts memories from her childhood, the vast disruption to her life, the enormous uncertainties and challenges but also the tremendous feelings of affection and appreciation to those who cared for her during that period. Dame Stephanie talks about her time on the Welsh borders in Oswestry, when on market day Welsh was the language of the traders, and where her deep fondness for Wales began.

Out of adversity, Dame Stephanie became a pioneer of IT and of women’s position as leaders in the workplace. Following retirement, she became a well-known philanthropist contributing very significantly to both IT and autism. Her influence in Wales especially in autism, led to the development (through the charity she founded, Autism Cymru), of the Welsh Government's national plan for autism, and Cardiff University's Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC). Her personal involvement in Ysgol Plas Brondyffryn in Denbigh, changed an under-funded and failing school for children with autism and ALN, to become a flagship school in Wales and further afield.

This is the written transcript of the audio recording in which Dame Stephanie provides the listener an opportunity to learn of her early experiences as a Kindertransport refugee and the influence it had upon the rest of her exceptional life.