Noor Inayat Khan

Noor Inayat Khan was born to an American mother – the poet Amina Begum – and an Indian father – Inayat Khan – who was a musician and Sufi teacher. After spending her early years in London, Noor lived with her family in Paris for much of her life. Despite their pacifist Sufi upbringing, Noor and her family decided to move back to England to join the fight against fascism. Noor enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as Nora Inayat Khan on 19 November 1940 and towards the end of 1941 she applied for a commission in Intelligence. Her home was wherever her family was, and from mid-1942 until after she left for France in June 1943 this was 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, where her mother lived.