28 Facts About Barnett Stross

Sir Barnett Stross was a British doctor and politician.

Barnett Stross served twenty years as a Labour Party Member of Parliament, famously led the humanitarian campaign "Lidice Shall Live" and pushed for reforms in industry to protect workers.

Barnett Stross was born to a Jewish family, originally bearing the name Strasberg, in Poland on 25 December 1899.

Barnett Stross then studied medicine at the University of Leeds where he qualified in 1926.

Barnett Stross chose to set up in practice in the Potteries area of north Staffordshire.

Barnett Stross successfully launched a media campaign to obtain financial compensation for miners who suffered serious occupational lung disease.

At a time prior to the existence of a welfare state in Britain, Stross gave medical care without charge to the poorer members of Stoke-on-Trent's communities.

Barnett Stross became honorary medical adviser to the Pottery Workers' Society in 1926, and joined the Labour Party in 1930.

Barnett Stross was involved with the North Staffordshire Miners' Federation and an active member of the Socialist Medical Association.

At the 1945 general election Barnett Stross was elected as Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent's Hanley division.

Barnett Stross continued to act as medical adviser to the Potters' Union until 1954.

Barnett Stross concentrated on industrial illnesses and opposed smoking because of the lung damage caused.

Barnett Stross led a campaign to rebuild Lidice, a Czechoslovak village which had been destroyed by Nazi forces during the Second World War in a 1942 massacre under orders from Adolf Hitler, who was enraged by the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by British-trained Czech resistance fighters.

In 1955 Barnett Stross led an initiative to construct the world's largest rose garden with 23,000 roses donated by numerous countries around the world.

Sir Barnett Stross considered the establishment of the movement to support Lidice, its genesis in Stoke-on-Trent, but growing worldwide, his greatest personal success.

Barnett Stross said that the success lay neither in the big sum that had been collected for the rebuilding of Lidice nor in the beautiful Rose Garden nor in the Lidice Collection which he had founded.

Barnett Stross saw the success in the fact that the news about the slaughter of innocent people had flown around the world, converting the crime committed by the Nazis into a weapon of peace.

Barnett Stross considered it a great personal honour to be awarded the Freedom of Lidice on 21 June 1957.

Barnett Stross was able to enthuse Conservative as well as Labour politicians for art.

Barnett Stross played a key role in retaining a work by Leonardo da Vinci - The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist Cartoon for the UK.

Barnett Stross bequeathed his large art collection to the Keele University, of which he was a co-founder.

Barnett Stross was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Keele University on 30 June 1965.

Barnett Stross was instrumental in the establishment of the recently refurbished Mitchell Memorial Theatre.

Barnett Stross received a knighthood in the New Years' Honours list of 1964.

Barnett Stross left office in February 1965 and in July 1965 announced his retirement from the House of Commons due to concerns about his own health.

Barnett Stross died at University College London on 14 May 1967.

Barnett Stross devoted the largest part of his life to his political career, playing a major role in the development of relations between the UK and Czechoslovakia, the renewal of the village of Lidice and the protection of workers against industrial disease.

Barnett Stross donated the land in Hanley on which his house stood and then helped raise funds to build what is the Mitchell Arts Centre.