Girl in portrait by Stephen Ward, alongside Christine Keeler, adds to the Profumo mystery

A WITNESS to one of the most sensational sex scandals of British political history has been found staring out of a drawing, but her identity is a mystery.

Hobson, Profumo

A WITNESS to one of the most sensational sex scandals of British political history has been found staring out of a drawing at the National Portrait Gallery, but her identity is a mystery because the sitter is unnamed.

The woman in the drawing was present when Christine Keeler first met John Profumo, the Cabinet minister whose affair with the nightclub hostess would help to bring down Harold Macmillan's Government. Not only was Profumo married, but Ms Keeler was also sleeping with a senior Russian naval attache when the Cold War was at its most volatile.

If the sitter in the drawing is still alive, she may be one of the few people to know how the 1963 scandal began.

Her image was found on the back of a sketch of Ms Keeler by Stephen Ward, an osteopath whose patients included figures in the Establishment. A note accompanying the picture says briefly why the two images were on either side of the paper. "This drawing is of me by Stephen Ward," Ms Keeler wrote on the note, which is dated March 3, 1975. "I don't know who the girl on the back is - she is somebody we just picked up at a bus stop."

Although Ms Keeler's note holds no further clues, her memoir Scandal! describes how she and Ward picked up the woman on the way to the party in the summer of 1961 when Ms Keeler and Profumo had their first encounter.

"Stephen [Ward] suggested that I pick up a girl for him and drive down to Cliveden with the two of them for a swim and a bit of a party later on," she wrote. "I was his little tool for getting girls." She was unsuccessful in finding a woman for Ward at the clubs they visited in London, but they saw someone as they drove to Cliveden, the stately home of the Astor family that is now a hotel.

"Driving past London airport we offered a lift to a girl waiting at the bus stop. She seemed nice, so we invited her to the party at Stephen's cottage [on the Cliveden estate]." Ms Keeler described how the three of them rushed into the swimming pool and were there when Profumo arrived. It is likely that the woman saw Profumo chasing Ms Keeler around the pool while she was wearing only a towel, and met guests including Ayub Khan, then President of Pakistan, and Valerie Hobson, an actress and Profumo's wife.

Ms Keeler's only other mention of the woman is that "after the party, my friend drove back to London and dropped off the girl we had picked up".

Most of the witnesses, including Profumo and his wife, have died, but one is still alive. Ms Keeler's friend Leon Norell said yesterday (Tuesday) that he had a vague recollection of his trip to Clive-den. "I remember going to Cliveden and I met John Profumo ... I vaguely remember giving a lift to somebody. She must be about 70 now." He said that her name could be Ursula, but it was too long ago to be sure.

There is another tantalising possibility. The drawing has a strong resemblance to a photograph of a woman who testified at Ward's trial for living off immoral earnings. The woman, known in court only as "Miss X", had been seduced by Ward at his flat and gave evidence that his bedroom door had a two-way mirror. If the mysterious woman and Miss X are the same person, it is strange that Ms Keeler did not say so in her note or her memoir.

Ms Keeler did not respond to a request for comment.