Britain’s first female agent during the Second World War saved countless lives, inspired the first Bond girl and — because of her “pathological love of danger” — was Winston Churchill’s favourite spy.

But a boutique hotel in west London is unimpressed by Krystyna Skarbek.

She skied across mountains hiding secrets in her gloves, repeatedly talked her way out of prisons and persuaded an entire Nazi garrison to defect. In the run-up to D-Day she was an important spy in Nazi-occupied France.

But for the past three years, 1 Lexham Gardens in Earl’s Court has blocked attempts by English Heritage to honour the Polish-born countess, who lived at the hotel in the 1950s, with a blue plaque.

Despite appeals from the charity and now by the