The Princess Spy

Noor Inayat Khan

Alias Nora Baker, and codenamed Madeleine, was a beautiful and talented princess. 

Before the war, she had bagged a degree in Child Psychology, had written a lot of poetry, as well as many children's stories. 

Her stories appeared in Paris newspapers and on French radio. 

By the time she was twenty five years old, her book, Twenty Jataka Tales, had been published in France, Britain and the United States. 

Noor was also an accomplished musician. 

Her greatest love was music and she was said to have played the harp beautifully.

WW2 began the same year her book was published, and during 1940, Germany invaded France. 

Noor and her family became refugees and just managed to get on the last boat leaving the French coast for Britain.

She joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and trained to become a wireless operator.

Her excellent radio skills and fluent French brought her to the attention of SOE (The Special Operations Executive) and they came calling to recruit her.

Unknown to the SOE at that time was the fact that the individual Henri Dericourt, who met her plane when it landed in France, was a double agent who worked for both the British and the Germans.

Within days of her arrival, all the British agents that worked for the Prosper network she was assigned to work with, had been arrested by the Germans. 

All of them, except Noor.

Because of this development, SOE ordered her to return to England but Noor refused, insisting that she would rebuild the network on her own.

She stayed at her post, and probably because SOE didn't insist hard enough, she ended up doing the work of six radio operators while the Germans hunted for her.

Her transmissions became the only link between the agents around the Paris area and London. Her work had become crucial to the war effort, as she helped airmen to escape and also in facilitating important deliveries to come in.

She moved constantly and evaded arrest many times, until...

The sister of the leader of one of the cells she worked with betrayed and informed on her. For money.

After her capture, the Germans asked her to send a message to London, a standard ploy that gives the erroneous impression that she was still operating successfully behind the line.

Princess Noor obliged, but deliberately omitted her "Bluff Security Check" which should have alerted London that she was in the hands of the enemy. 

Amazingly, SOE for some reason missed this clue. 

And so, when the Germans got control of her radio and used their own wireless operators to send messages to London, SOE sent in more agents. 

Predictably, all of them got captured because the Germans were waiting for them.

Promised inducements at first by the Germans if she would cooperate, Princess Noor refused to talk. 

They tried other tactics that had successfully been used on other captured agents, and still they got nothing out of her.

Exasperated and frustrated by her strong will, she was sent off to prison in Germany to receive the harshest treatment possible. 

Kept under inhumane conditions and beaten every day, she remained resolute and unswerving.

Finally, she was shipped to the Dachau concentration camp in Dachau to be tortured and executed.

The final word out of her mouth before she was shot in the back of the head was Liberty!

She died because she believed that all people must be free.

Read More Here...Overlooked No More: Noor Inayat Khan, Indian Princess and British Spy

Noor Inayat Khan was recently suggested to be the new face of the £50 note. 

This created further awareness of her war time efforts. 

The Bank of England however decided that the subject would be a scientist.

In France, a primary school in Suresness has been named after her.


"Without sacrifice there is no resurrection.
Nothing grows and blooms save by giving.
All you try to save in yourself wastes and perishes."
~ Andre Gide (The Fruits of the Earth)

Peace