The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers , especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her service, the highest civilian decoration for gallantry in the United Kingdom. Noor Inayat Khan was born on 1 January , in Moscow.
Her father, Inayat Khan , was born in Baroda, Bombay Presidency , and came from a family of Indian Muslims [ 4 ] with hereditary nobles and classical musicians among both sides of his ancestors. Inayat Khan's great-great-grandfather was Tipu Sultan the ruler of Mysore. Inayat Khan lived in Europe as a musician and a teacher of Sufism. In , shortly before the outbreak of the First World War , the family left Russia for Britain , and lived in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London.
Noor attended nursery in Notting Hill. In , the family moved to France, settling in Suresnes near Paris, in a house that was a gift from a benefactor of the Sufi movement. As a young girl, Noor was described as quiet, shy, sensitive, and dreamy. After the death of her father in , year-old Noor took on the responsibility for her younger siblings from her grief-stricken mother. As a young woman, Noor began a career as a writer, publishing her poetry and children's stories in English and French and becoming a regular contributor to children's magazines and French radio.
Harrap and Co. Although Noor was deeply influenced by pacifist ideals, she and her brother Vilayat decided they wanted to help defeat Nazi tyranny: "I wish some Indians would win high military distinction in this war.
If one or two could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians. She was sent to Wanborough Manor , near Guildford in Surrey , after which she was ordered to Aylesbury , in Buckinghamshire , for special training as a wireless operator in occupied territory. She was the first woman to be sent over in such a capacity, as all the woman agents before her had been sent as couriers.
