Helen Bamber
Doctor of the University (HonDUniv)
Year conferred: 2005
Helen Bamber was a member of one of the first rehabilitation teams to enter the Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Second World War. She remained in Germany working for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association, one of her achievements being the establishment of the 'TB Train' which took children from the former camps to Switzerland for treatment.
In 1947 she returned to England and was appointed to the Committee for the Care of Children from Concentration Camps. Her experiences have led her to devote her life to the promotion of human rights. She was a founder member of the National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital, and in 1985 established the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.
She joined Amnesty International in 1961 which campaigns to raise awareness of the practice of torture throughout the world. Mrs Bamber is Patron of 'Women Against Violence' and of 'Latin American Mothers'.
She is also on the Board of the Gaza Community Health Programme and the International Board of the Family Rehabilitation Centre, Colombo. She was named European Woman of Achievement in 1993 and awarded the OBE in 1997.
