Person    | Female  Born 2/1/1914  Died 13/9/1944

Noor Inayat Khan

Categories: Espionage

Countries: France, Russia

War dead, WW2 i

Commemorated on a memorial as having died in WW2.

WW2 spy and member of the French resistance. A descendant of the 18th century south Indian ruler Tipu Sultan, Khan was a follower of the Sufi faith and believed in non-violence.

Born Moscow to parents of Indian heritage. Just before the start of WW1 the family moved to London, Bloomsbury, and in 1920 they moved to France. She took on responsibility for the family and in 1940 they escaped back to England. A fluent French speaker with a strong aversion to fascism she joined the Special Operations Executive and infiltrated into France with a false identity. She worked there for the French resistance but was betrayed. Captured by the Nazis she was tortured and killed in Dachau concentration camp in Germany. The British posthumously awarded her the George Cross, France the Croix de Guerre, their highest civilian honour. She is the only Indian woman to have received the George Cross.

The first woman of south Asian descent to get a blue plaque in London.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Noor Inayat Khan

Commemorated ati

Memorial Gates

Designed by Liam O'Connor as a reduced-scale version of Lutyens' monument at ...

Read More

Noor Inayat Khan bust

The Guardian reports: "the first stand-alone memorial to an Asian woman in th...

Read More

Noor Inayat Khan - Taviton Street

Noor Inayat Khan, GC, 1914 - 1944, SOE agent, codename 'Madeleine', stayed he...

Read More

Women's Transport Service (FANY)

We like the bespoke layout of this plaque: the medals, the maiden-name, the "...

Read More

Other Subjects

Hester Leggatt

Hester Leggatt

Hester May Murray Leggatt was a vital contributor to MI5's 1943 Operation Mincemeat - see there for the full story. Born in India, her family brought her back to the UK before WW1.  She attended T...

Person, Espionage

1 memorial
Women’s Transport Service (FANY)

Women’s Transport Service (FANY)

All-women unit, affiliated to the TA, formed as the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and active in both nursing and intelligence work during WW1 and WW2.  The original role was to ride horseback (hence "...

Group, Armed Forces, Espionage, Medicine

1 memorial
Vera Atkins

Vera Atkins

Commander of the Order of British Empire, Croix de Guerre, Legion of Honour. Born in Romania as Vera May Rosenberg into a distinguished Jewish family. "Atkins" was an Anglicised version of her mot...

Person, Espionage

1 memorial
Odette Hallowes, GC

Odette Hallowes, GC

Born Odette Marie Céline Brailly in France.  Married an Englishman, Sansom, in 1931 and moved to England.  He enlisted in 1940 and she in 1942 with Special Forces of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry ...

Person, Espionage, France

War served, WW2
1 memorial
Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat was a successful WW2 British deception operation to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. British intelligence obtained an unwanted body and took it to Hackney Mortuary w...

Event, Armed Forces, Espionage

2 memorials

Previously viewed

Martha Gellhorn

Martha Gellhorn

American novelist, travel writer, and journalist, considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century. Gellhorn reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place durin...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, USA

1 memorial
Wimbledon Village Improvement 1964

Wimbledon Village Improvement 1964

SW19, Wimbledon High Street, Fire Station

This is Local London news item is useful. The LEB is mentioned on the plaque because at the time they owned the building, the former fire...

6 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Rev. Joseph Harrison

Rev. Joseph Harrison

Initially we had no information about this man but as soon as we published we were contacted by a few people who had taken on the challenge of identification.  Mike Coleman has found his entry in t...

Person, Religion

1 memorial
Nathaniel Hanwell

Nathaniel Hanwell

Produced plans for St Thomas's Hospital gateway, 1682.

Person, Architecture

1 memorial
Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday

Experimental physicist, especially electro-magnetics (remember Faraday's Law?). Born in Newington Butts but brought up near Oxford Street. Trained as a bookbinder and here he was given tickets to s...

Person, Science, Seriously Famous

9 memorials