Noor Inayat Khan: Trained in Beaulieu & Executed in Dachau
If you’ve ever 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, with links to the New Forest and nearby Southampton.
Noor Inayat Khan was born in Moscow in 1914, the eldest of four children. Her father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, was a Sufi musician and spiritual teacher related to Indian royalty. His great grandfather was Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore. Noor’s mother was an American writer and poet named Ora Ray Baker. At the outbreak of the First World War, the young family moved to Britain and lived in London briefly 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 – and a bit of a dreamer. She studied music and published children’s stories. In 1927, her father died, and at the age of thirteen, Noor took on huge of responsibility in the home, caring for her siblings due to her mother’s grief.
The Outbreak of War Changes Noor Inayat Khan’s Life Trajectory
In June 1940, nine months into the Second World War, France surrendered to Germany. That same month, the family travelled to Bordeaux and left France to return to the relative safety of Britain. They 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.
The move to England would eventually lead a path to Noor’s death in a concentration camp.
Despite being raised as a pacifist, 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 fluent 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.
Training in Beaulieu’s SOE Finishing School
Before her deployment to France as a wireless operator, she underwent intensive training at the SOE’s school in Beaulieu. The estate served as the a top-secret finishing 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 personality, and it is very doubtful whether she is really suited to work in the field.” Despite this, her instructors noted her determination, dedication, and resilience… and sent her into occupied France under the nose of the Nazis with the codename ‘Madeleine’ in June 1943. It’s debatable as to whether she should have been sent at all, as her training was cut short due to a shortage of wireless operators in the field.
Undercover in Paris
She arrived in Paris as the first female wireless operator to be palced into France. She carried 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. But within a few weeks, the Gestapo arrested most of her comrades, making her the only radio operator left in the area. Rather than return to safety, she chose to remain in France and single-handedly maintained vital communications with London.
Noor Inayat Khan was betrayed by a French collaborator in October 1943 and handed over to the Gestapo. She fiercely resisted interrogation and refused to reveal any information. She even attempted escape twice from her cell in 84 Avenue Foch, Paris, but was recaptured. The Nazis decided it was better to keep her shackled in chains and moved her to a German prison where she was placed in solitary confinement for ten months. She continued to refuse to cooperate, although other prisoners did report hearing her cry at night in despair.
On September 12, 1944, Noor was moved to Dachau concentration camp along with three other captured SOE agents. After 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.
Film – Noor Inayat Khan: The Spy Who Learned to Vanish in Beaulieu
In 2026, I recorded a short on-location film in Beaulieu about Noor Inayat Khan. I visit the Abbey, the river, the Palace grounds, nearby woodland and the church to tell Noor’s story through the landscape where Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents were trained to move, blend in, stay calm under pressure… and vanish during WW2.
Filmed on location in Beaulieu, Hampshire.
If you want to learn more about Noor and other SOE agents trained in Beaulieu, there’s an SOE museum on the Beaulieu Estate. It’s accessed via the National Motor Museum and is an excellent place to learn about these brave people. The museum briefly appears around the 2 minute 48 second mark.
