Noor Inayat Khan

Born on January 1, 1914 in Russia, the daughter of an Indian father and an American mother. Her father was assigned to spread Sufi (a sect of Indian Muslim) philosophy and his travels took him to Russia where he became friends with the writer Leo Tolstoy and the mystic Rasputin. The family moved to London in 1917 and then settled in France in 1920.

After the death of her father in 1921, Inayat began attending school, eventually entering the Sorbonne where she studied juvenile psychology. Unfortunately she suffered a nervous breakdown at this time. She returned to academics entering Ecole de Langues Orientales at the University of Paris in 1937.

She began writing for children soon after, first for radio broadcast and then for a children's newspaper she founded called Bel Age.Upon the German invasion of France in 1940 she fled to England with her family. Her brother joined the Royal Navy and she became a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

She entered the Special Operations Executive and was trained as a radio operator. She was inserted into France to work with the French underground using the codename "Madeline." and radioed information to the allies regarding resistance activities as well as providing intelligence for allied operations.

Working under the name Jeanne-Marie Regnier she rode her bicycle to the National School of Agriculture at Grignon (which served as her spy network's headquarters) everyday, delivering messages from London and receiving new messages to send back to London.