SIGI Faith led a remarkable life and one in which he found salvation in Oswestry.

For Sigi was one of 10,000 Jewish children hurried to England in 1938 and separated from his family as the evil grip of the Nazis tightened across his native Germany.

To mark International Refugee Day (Sunday, June 20) the Border Counties Advertizer shares the story of one of the children who was saved during World War Two.

The Kindertransport scheme saved thousands of Jewish children from certain death at the hands of Adolf Hitler's evil regime which would culminate in the Holocaust.

Sigi found salvation at Oswestry School where he was enrolled upon arriving in Shropshire soon after arriving in the UK as a 10-year-old.

Border Counties Advertizer: Sigi Faith. Picture courtesy of Oswestry School.

Sigi with his parents.

Sigi had already embarked on a train and shop from Hamburg to Holland and onto Harwich having said farewell to his parents in Germany.

Sigi Faith, the entrepreneur who founded the Faith Shoes business, arrived in England on 15 December 1938. Aged 10, he was put on a train from Hamburg to Holland where he boarded a ship bound for Harwich.

While his mother had sought to make the journey an adventure for her son both had known the chances of ever seeing one another again were not assured as the Nazis took swept across the continent.

Like so many of his compatriots, Sigi had found a warm welcome in Shropshire.

In his account of his life he called the county "paradise."

Border Counties Advertizer: Sigi Faith. Picture courtesy of Oswestry School.

Sigi Faith at Oswestry School.

Sigi loved Oswestry School and said every memory formed there had been a happy one.

"In Germany as a Jew one felt inferior, even hated. At Oswestry School I was... treated as an equal, joined in everything... it was great," he said.

He also spoke of his admiration for those who adopted refugee children.

"They were taken in by very ordinary working class people, by aristocracy, the whole country took in children. Wonderful," said Sigi

Sigi enjoyed six happy years at Oswestry School where he became captain of cricket and head boy.

Border Counties Advertizer: Sigi Faith. Picture courtesy of Oswestry School.

Sigi Faith later in life.

Sigi was more fortunate than most of the children and 10 years later he was reunited with his parents who has escaped to Shanghai.

Later he went into business with his father, retailing and exporting woollen textiles.

In 1964, Sigi opened his first footwear shop in Wood Green, north London, trading as Faith Footwear. He quickly grew the business, which made its mark on the high street by producing fashion looks at reasonable prices.

He retired from a hands-on role in 1997 after a stroke, and his son Jonathan, who had joined the business in 1978, took over the day-to-day running of the company and Sigi died in 2010 following a remarkable life.