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Sue Ryder

(1923-2000), Founder of Homes for the Sick and Disabled; wife of (Geoffrey) Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire

(Margaret) Susan ('Sue') Ryder, Baroness Ryder of Warsaw

Sitter in 4 portraits
Ryder, aged sixteen, immediately volunteered to be a nurse with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry when war broke out. She was accepted and posted to the Polish section of the Special Operations Executive. After the war, she volunteered to do relief work in Poland, and when United Nations relief groups pulled out in 1952, she stayed on. The following year, back in England, with only £1,000 from her personal savings, she opened her first home for 'forgotten friends of the allies'. Soon, her mother's old home was caring for more than 30 sick or injured survivors, and the Sue Ryder Foundation was born. But her aims branched out to provide homes and domiciliary care teams for the sick and disabled all over the world.

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Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire; Sue Ryder

by Rosalind Cuthbert
oil on canvas, 1982
NPG 5520

Sue Ryder

by Lord Snowdon
vintage bromide print, 1984
NPG P837

Sue Ryder

by Nick Sinclair
bromide print, 1991
NPG P510(34)

Sue Ryder; Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire

by Anne-Katrin Purkiss
bromide fibre print, June 1987
NPG x31693

Related People

(Geoffrey) Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire (husband)

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Sue Ryder