19 Facts About Sue Ryder

Margaret Susan Ryder was born in 1924 in Leeds, the daughter of Charles Foster Ryder and Mabel Elizabeth Sims.

Sue Ryder joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry as a volunteer in January 1942.

Sue Ryder was assigned to the Polish section of the SOE and in 1943 she was posted with the Polish Unit to Tunisia, Algeria and later to Italy.

Sue Ryder drove all over Germany to visit them in prisons, where she was often not welcomed by the authorities.

Sue Ryder appealed on their behalf for their sentences to be reduced, or for their release, and for many she would be their only visitor.

In 1996 her charity became Sue Ryder Care, changing its name to Sue Ryder in 2011.

Sue Ryder established the first Home in Britain at her mother's house in Cavendish, Suffolk in 1953, having already founded the St Christopher Settlement and St Christopher Kries in Germany.

Over twenty homes in each country were started in this way, and Sue Ryder would make annual visits to look at sites for new homes and see what other help was needed.

Aware of the difficult conditions in which many of the survivors of the concentration camps continued to live in Poland, Sue Ryder began a Holiday Scheme.

The scheme transferred to the UK in 1958 and with the home in Cavendish already full, Sue Ryder leased the south wing of nearby Melford Hall.

Sue Ryder made the house into the headquarters of her independent charity, the Sue Ryder Prayer Fellowship, which she founded in 1984.

In 1998, Sue Ryder retired as a trustee and severed her links with Sue Ryder following a dispute with the other trustees, whom she accused of betraying her guiding principles.

In February 2000, Sue Ryder set up the Lady Sue Ryder of Warsaw Memorial Trust to continue charitable work according to her ideals.

Sue Ryder was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1957.

Sue Ryder was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1976.

Sue Ryder was made a life peer on 31 January 1979, being created Baroness Sue Ryder of Warsaw, of Warsaw in Poland and of Cavendish in the County of Suffolk.

Sue Ryder continued to speak for Poland and when the Communist rule there collapsed, she arranged lorries of medical and food aid.

Sue Ryder's husband was made a life peer in 1991, as Baron Cheshire, as a result of which Ryder obtained the additional title Baroness Cheshire.

Sue Ryder died in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 2 November 2000, aged 76.