Page 74 • The HERALD • 3rd April 2025 v WE’VE BEEN YOUR LOCAL SINCE 1994 v YOU NAME IT WE’LL CLEAN IT From basic cleaning to full detailing of cars, bike, boats, caravans, campers, horse boxes, tractors No Job too big or too small Call Ryan: 07702 731503 or stokes181112@gmail.com F: (RS) mobile car valeting Waterside Valeting Long established family business • MOT TESTING • SERVICE & REPAIR FOR ALL MAKES AND MODELS • CLUTCHES • DIAGNOSTICS • CAMBELTS • SERVICE TO MANUFACTURERS SPECIFICATION • FREE COLLECTION & DELIVERY • USED CAR SALES 128-132 Calmore Road, Totton. SO40 8GQ 023 8086 4424 www.calmoreservicestation.co.uk 023 8084 9370 Prospect Place, Hythe SO45 6AU • MOT’s • MOT Repairs • Air Con • Auto Electrics • Servicing • Welding • Diagnostics • Suspension • Tyres • Clutches • Cam Belts • Brakes Noor Inayat Khan: The Heroine Trained in Beaulieu & Executed in Dachau by Marc Heighway Marc hosts monthly local history talks, visit: nfhwa. org/events for details If you’ve visited the Secret Army Exhibition at Palace House on the Beaulieu Estate, you might have seen a photo of a striking-looking young woman named Noor Inayat Khan. Her story is an incredible, yet tragic one, which has links to the New Forest and Southampton. Noor was born in Moscow in 1914, the eldest of four children. Her father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, was a Su musician and spiritual teacher related to Indian royalty, and her mother was an American writer and poet. At the outbreak of the First World War, the family moved to Britain and lived in London brie y before relocating to France in 1920. Noor was described by those who knew her as a quiet and sensitive girl with a love of writing. She studied music and published children’s stories. In 1927, her father died, and at the age of thirteen, Noor took on a lot of responsibility in the home, caring for her siblings due to her mother’s grief. In June 1940, nine months into the Second World War, France surrendered to Germany. at same month, the family le France to return to the relative safety of Britain. ey ended up being temporary guests in the Southampton home of Basil Mitchell. He was a philosopher educated at King Edward VI School in Southampton, whose family had known Noor’s father. e move to England would eventually lead a path to Noor’s death in a concentration camp. Despite being raised as a paci st, Noor made the decision to volunteer for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). It wasn’t the exciting role she hoped for, so she sought a new challenge. Her uent French and WAAF experience in wireless telegraphy meant she was a good candidate to be recruited as an agent to be dropped into occupied France. She joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1942 and was trained as a wireless operator. Before her deployment to France as a wireless operator, she underwent intensive training at the SOE’s school in Beaulieu. e estate served as the top-secret nishing school for SOE agents, where recruits were taught essential skills in sabotage, surveillance, and covert operations. Noor was trained in encryption and how to evade enemy detection. Her instructors were not convinced of her suitability. Comments included how Noor was “not overburdened with brains but has worked hard and shown keenness… she has an unstable and temperamental her determination, dedication, and resilience… and sent her into occupied France under the nose of the Nazis with the codename ‘Madeleine’ in June 1943. She arrived in Paris with a large and bulky suitcase containing her wireless transmitter. From a safe house, she sent intelligence reports to and from England as part of the Prosper circuit, a French resistance network. Within a few weeks, the Gestapo arrested most of her comrades, making her the only radio operator le in the area. Rather than return to safety, she chose to remain in France and single-handedly maintained vital communications with London. Noor was betrayed by a French collaborator in October 1943 and handed over to the Gestapo. She ercely resisted interrogation and refused to reveal any information. She personality, and it is very doubtful whether she is really suited to work in the field.” Despite this, her instructors noted Noor Inayat Khan even attempted escape twice but was recaptured. e Nazis decided it was better to keep her shackled in chains and in solitary con nement for ten months. She continued to refuse to cooperate, although other prisoners did report hearing her cry at night in despair. On September 12th 1944, Noor was taken to Dachau concentration camp along with three other captured SOE agents. A er enduring beatings by the SS, she was executed the next morning with a single shot to the head. Her last reported word was “Liberté.” Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.
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