British Indian spy Noor Inayat Khan honoured with new postage stamp in France

Noor Inayat Khan, a descendent of the 18th-century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, has become the only Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a commemorative postage stamp by France for her role in the French Resistance as an undercover British agent during the Second World War.

The French postal service, La Poste, honoured Noor with a stamp issued to honour the “Figures of the Resistance” who fought against Nazi Germany. She is among a dozen war heroes and heroines chosen on the set of stamps issued this month to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.

“I am delighted that France has honoured Noor Inayat Khan with a postage stamp, especially as it comes on this important 80th anniversary of the end of the war,” said Shrabani Basu, the London-based author of Noor’s biography – ‘Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan’.  “Noor sacrificed her life in the fight against fascism. She grew up in Paris, joined the war effort in England, and it is wonderful to see her face on a postage stamp which will be posted by ordinary people in France,” she said.

Each stamp is in the form of an etching taken from a photograph, with the stamp on Noor showcasing her in her British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) uniform.  “Britain honoured Noor in 2014 to mark the centenary of her birth. She now has a stamp in her honour issued by Britain and France. It is time that India, the country of her ancestors, honours her with a postage stamp too,” said Basu.

Born Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian Sufi saint father and American mother, Noor moved to London at a young age before settling in Paris for her school years. Following the fall of France during the Second World War, the family escaped to England and Noor joined the WAAF.

On February 8, 1943, she was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – a British secret service created to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied territories during the war.

She went on to become the first female radio operator infiltrated into occupied France in June 1943 and was captured by Nazi forces to be deported to Dachau concentration camp, where she was tortured and executed on September 13, 1944, aged just 30 years.

In recognition of her immense bravery, Noor Inayat Khan was awarded the French Resistance Medal and France’s highest civilian honour, the Croix de Guerre, as well as a posthumous George Cross (GC) by Britain in 1949.

The latest set of French postage stamps are aimed at celebrating the achievements of figures like her behind the French Resistance during World War II.

“These men and women who said no became involved in intelligence networks, exfiltration, sabotage… Risking their lives, they saved the country’s honour and placed it on the winning side,” reads the statement describing the efforts of all those commemorated.

Others figured in the set of stamps include Jean-Pierre Levy, a founder of “France Liberte” – one of the leading Resistance movements, and British French SOE agent Violette Szabo, who was killed at Ravensbruck concentration camp.