A wartime hero who saved the lives of more than 650 Jewish children is to take a charity flight in a microlight aircraft at the age of 94.

Sir Nicholas Winton, known by some as the "British Schindler", announced the plan on Monday's National Holocaust Memorial Day.

The former Stock Exchange clerk from Maidenhead, Berkshire, now 93, plans to take the flight later this year at the White Waltham airfield.

Sir Nicholas, who was knighted in the New Year Honours, was just 29 when he smuggled 669 boys and girls, who were destined for Nazi concentration camps, out of Czechoslovakia.

Sir Nicholas plans to take to the air at the age of 94

He plans to fly with the granddaughter of one of the children he saved to raise funds for a charity, yet to be decided.

Today, there are thought to be more than 5,000 descendants of the Winton-rescued children around the world, including in the UK, Czech Republic and the US.

Sir Nicholas' heroism only came to light when his wife, Grete, came across an old scrapbook detailing the evacuations.

She persuaded her husband - who was by then nearly 80 - to tell his story in an official documentary.

Completely wrong

Sir Nicholas, who is planning to visit his 'children' in Israel in March, said Monday's memorial day should be a time to reflect on every human tragedy.

He said: "The only thing I think about holocaust day in particular is that it doesn't have an 's' at the end - that holocaust now is a word directed directly at the Germans and that we haven't got a word left over to deal with the Russian holocaust and the Pol Pot holocaust and the South African holocaust.

"That holocaust day should be connected forever with entirely one country, that that holocaust may be the worst of all, I think is completely wrong."