Contenders for gracing the redesigned £50 note are lining up, but one gaining support has a strong Bloomsbury connection: Noor Inayat Khan, whose memorial sculpture is to be found in Gordon Square. Moscow-born Noor lived as a child in London and France, and in 1942 was living again with her family in Taviton Street, just off Gordon Square. She was in training as a Special Operations Executive secret agent, known as Nora Baker, before being sent in 1943 into Nazi-occupied France as a radio operator. In France she was betrayed and finally was shot in September 1944 with three other female agents at Dachau. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross.
She would be the first Muslim, indeed the first member of any ethnic minority group, to feature on a Bank of England note. A petition has already attracted more than 4,500 signatures.