Sue Ryder, life and legacy ~ October 2026

Joanna Bogle is an author, historian and broadcaster who trained as a journalist on the Surrey Comet newspaper. As Visiting Research Fellow at St Mary’s University in Twickenham, she was commissioned to write the University’s history marking its 175th anniversary. In 2013 she was awarded a Papal honour and became a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.

Joanna talked about Sue Ryder (1923 to 2000) CMG, OBE, who is familiar from the charity shops she founded. While still in her teens she worked with the Special Operations Executive, then on de-mobilisation, she launched her own post-war work for Polish refugees and concentration camp survivors in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. Her work expanded with her husband, Leonard Cheshire VC, into a range of care homes, hospices and other projects in Britain and overseas. She was created Baroness Ryder of Warsaw in January 1979.

Joanna has many books available on Amazon.