Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh remembered

The founder of children's charity Kids Company, Camila Batmanghelidjh, has been honoured at a funeral in London.

In keeping with her famous aesthetic, her funeral was awash with colour as the congregation paid tribute to the "brilliant woman".

Messages written on her coffin by well-wishers included "Your spirit will live forever" and "Queen of the South".

Ms Batmanghelidjh died peacefully in her sleep aged 61 on 1 January after a period of ill health.

In a statement penned before her death, read by her brother Ardi, Ms Batmanghelidjh told those present to "not be sad".

She reflected that she "had an absolutely brilliant life" and the "opportunity to serve amazing children and young people".

Ms Batmanghelidjh had instructed those present to wear vivid clothing to the funeral, writing "under no condition should anyone wear black, colour is the order of the day!"

Her brother said her greatest gift was "the ability to connect with people one-on-one".

"During those moments, one would feel total love and connection with her, wiping away a world of pain," he wrote in a message for the service.

Ms Batmanghelidjh, of Iranian-Belgian descent, founded Kids Company in 1996 in south London, to provide support to up to 36,000 deprived and vulnerable inner-city children and young people.

By 2013, she was appointed CBE and listed among the UK's most powerful women by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Ms Batmanghelidjh's family said the charity founder continued to support vulnerable children right up until her death

Known for her colourful dress sense, at the height of her fame she rubbed shoulders with politicians, being sought out by Labour and Conservative governments, and had celebrity supporters.

Former prime minister David Cameron, Coldplay, artist Damien Hirst and comedian Michael McIntyre were among the charity's well-known backers.

In 2015, Ms Batmanghelidjh stepped down after Kids Company ran into financial difficulties. The charity shut down in August that year, after the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into sexual assault allegations, following the broadcast of a BBC Newsnight report.

A subsequent police investigation found no evidence of criminality or safeguarding failures.

And in 2021, Ms Batmanghelidjh and six others won their High Court battle against disqualification from being directors of other organisations.

At the time, the judge said that had it not been for the allegations of criminality the charity may have survived.

However, the Charity Commission later ruled it had been mismanaged - although it said there was "no dishonesty, bad faith, or inappropriate gain in the operation of the charity".

Following her death, Ms Batmanghelidjh's family published an obituary on her website, saying: "Until her death, she continued to work with vulnerable children, who called her or visited her to discuss their traumas, their insecurities, and their challenges.

"Camila wanted to honour these children with the care and protection they deserved," the family said.