Devonshire House remembers Sue Ryder

Devonshire House colleagues and residents gathered to mark 100 years since the birth of Sue Ryder on Friday 5 July. 

The care home in Cavendish was once the family home of Lady Ryder, whose bravery and determination saved the lives of many survivors of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland. 

In attendance at the celebrations on Friday was Lady Ryder’s daughter Dr Elizabeth Cheshire, as well as members of The Lady Ryder of Warsaw Memorial Trust (LRWMT). 

Guests enjoyed a buffet after first being shown a short Polish film about Lady Ryder and her work in Poland. 

Those in attendance also revisited the Remembrance Room at Devonshire House, which opened in 2019 and is dedicated to the memory of Lady Ryder. 

Mario Iannone, current Team Leader at Devonshire House, worked for Lady Ryder between 1990 and 1997. He said:

Even in her late years, Lady Ryder’s unwavering commitment to easing the distress and suffering of others was inspiring. 

She applied the last four lines of the poem 'What I Live For’ by George Linnaeus Banks as the concept for her work: 

For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.
How relevant these words remain today.

LRWMT Trustee Michael Cutting added:

During the Second World War, Sue Ryder was keen to help, and she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) and from there she was seconded to the highly secretive Special Operations Executive. She served in the Polish section, and it was here that she learnt at first hand the extent of human suffering which the war had inflicted on Europe. 

She met Polish men and women who were being parachuted back into Poland to work with the resistance there, many of whom would not return from their missions. She knew then that after the war she wanted to do something in memory of those who had suffered and died.

For more information on Devonshire House see here.