Who was Noor Inayat Khan?

A British secret agent of Indian descent who worked as a wireless operator in occupied Paris during the Second World War — the most dangerous role in the network — and who was executed at Dachau in 1944 after refusing repeatedly to give information.

Her background, which is genuinely improbable. Born in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian Sufi teacher and an American mother, descended from an eighteenth-century ruler of Mysore, she was raised in Paris, wrote children's stories, studied music, and was by upbringing and conviction committed to non-violence. She and her brother decided that the threat of Nazism required them to act anyway.

Recruitment. She fled to Britain when France fell, joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, trained as a wireless operator, and was recruited into the Special Operations Executive, which sent agents into occupied Europe. Her assessments were mixed — some trainers doubted her suitability, noting she was conspicuous and found deception difficult — but wireless operators were desperately needed and she was fluent in French.

What she did. She was flown into France in June 1943, the first woman sent as a wireless operator into occupied territory. Radio operators had the shortest life expectancy of any role, because transmissions could be traced by detector vans and a set had to be carried and concealed.

Within weeks her network collapsed and most of its members were arrested. She was offered the chance to return to Britain and refused, remaining as the last link between Paris and London, moving constantly and continuing to transmit alone for months.

Capture and death. Betrayed and arrested in October 1943, she attempted escape twice, was classified as highly dangerous, held in chains in solitary confinement in Germany for ten months, and was transferred to Dachau and shot in September 1944. She is recorded as having given nothing away.

She was posthumously awarded the George Cross, and a bust of her stands in Bloomsbury.