Eurostar tribute to spy

Channel Tunnel high-speed rail company Eurostar has named one of its trains "Michel Hollard" after a courageous Second World War spy who became known as "the man who saved London".

The train was unveiled at Paris's Gare du Nord station in a ceremony attended by the British ambassador to France John Holmes.

With around 100 invited guests on board, including family and friends of Mr Hollard, the train then journeyed to Waterloo station in London.

Hollard was born in France in 1898 and died in 1993. Although decorated in the late 1940s by both the British and French governments, he never received the wide public recognition that many felt he deserved.

A businessman and spy, Hollard smuggled documents from France to the British intelligence service in Berne, which showed the site of 104 launch-pads for Germany's V-1 flying bomb.

He made a scale model of the launch-pads from the sketches, which enabled the RAF to identify and bomb the sites in northern France.

If the sketches had not reached Britain when they did, there could have been a devastating air attack on southern England.

Eurostar communications director Paul Charles said : "In the centenary year of the Entente Cordiale, there is no better time to name one of the Eurostar trains after Michel Hollard.

One of Michel Hollard's sons, Vincent, said: "My father acted with such courage. He would have been very proud to have a Eurostar named after him and those who helped him."