Queen unveils portrait honouring British SOE agent Noor Inayat Khan at RAF Club
Queen Camilla has unveiled a portrait of British Special Operations Executive agent Noor Inayat Khan.
Ms Khan was the first agent to be infiltrated into enemy-occupied France to aid the French Resistance during the Second World War, landing in the country in June 1943.
Working with the resistance in Paris, she aided the Allies by relaying messages back to Britain.
Ms Khan was betrayed and arrested, eventually being taken to Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed in September 1944.
She was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949.
Queen Camilla unveiled the portrait at the RAF Club in London, also announcing that the room in which it hangs will be renamed the Noor Inayat Khan Room.
Speaking to attendees, she said: "I feel very humble to unveil such a brave woman.
"I am delighted to name this room after her. It’s a wonderful painting."
Artist Paul Brason told the PA news agency it had been a difficult portrait to paint.
"One of the difficulties about painting a portrait of someone who was operating undercover, particularly in the Second World War, is that people who work undercover don’t like photographs being taken of them," he said.
"So that means, in regards to the reference material, there is not very much of it.
"Certainly none of it in what, dare one calls it, her professional capacity, because she would avoid it."
However, he said he had been able paint Ms Khan's portrait by working from a handful of photographs.
Ms Khan's cousin, Mahmoud Khan, 95, said it was an "excellent" likeness.
"That is what struck me most, that the painter did so much to bring her personality to life. It is truly splendid," he added.
The Queen also met members of staff at the RAF Club in Piccadilly, posing for a photo with them.
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