No. & Rank at the Time of Action: 9901, Assistant Section Officer
Unit/Occupation: Womens Auxiliary Air Force, seconded to Womens Transport Service (FANY)
Date and Place of Birth: 1st January 1914, Moscow, Russia
Family: Noor Inayat-Khan was of Indian ancestry. Her father was Hasra Inayat-Khan a leading Sufi mystic and musician, he married Miss Ora Ray Baker (American) of Oxford, on 20th March 1913. She had relatives in the 6th Rajputana Rifles.
Early Life: In December 1913, the family moved to Moscow where he was to teach at the Conservatoire. Noor was born in the Kremlin on 1st January 1914. Six months later, in July 1914, the family moved to Paris and later to 1 Gordon Sq, London. Over the next six years two brothers and a sister were born before the family moved back to Paris near Longchamps race course and later Suresnes. Noors father returned to India in 1926 and died in Delhi on 5th February 1927. In 1929 the family visited India and then began a lengthy European tour.
Sometime in 1939-40 Noor and her sister joined the nursing volunteers "Union des Femmes de France" and worked in hospitals as the Germans invaded. The family moved back to England in 1940 and a brother learned to fly. Noor joined the WAAF as an Aircraftswoman 2nd Class (ACW2) (Wireless) on 19th November 1940, and underwent training at Harrogate as a Wireless Operator. The following month she was posted to No.34 Barrage Balloon Sqn. In April 1941 she was moved to No.929 Balloon Sqn, prior to her appointment the following month to No. 6 Group Bomber Command as Wireless Op, ACW1. She was there a year before undertaking an advanced wireless course No. 3 Signals School. On 12th August 1942 Noor rejoined No.6 Group Bomber Command, and on 1st December 1942, she was promoted Leading Aircraftswoman (LACW). It was at about this time she applied to join SOE.
She also went by the name Nora Baker and was a published author of Indian and American descent who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her service in the SOE, the highest civilian decoration in the UK. As an SOE agent she became the first female wireless operator to be sent from Britain into occupied France to aid the French Resistance during World War II, and was Britain's first Muslim war heroine. Nickname(s) Nora Baker
Madeleine (SOE codename)
Nurse (SOE callsign)
Jeanne-Marie Renier (SOE alias) Born 2 January 1914 Moscow, Russian Empire Died 13 September 1944 (aged 30) Dachau concentration camp, Bavaria, Nazi Germany Allegiance
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