London: Noor Inayat Khan, the British spy agent’s house at 4-Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, down the road from Gordon Square where Noor was said to have spent many a day on a bench reading and where a bust of her now stands, in London has been awarded a blue plaque. She is the first Indian woman whose place of living has been awarded this honour which is shared by as many as 900 homes or places in London. Blue plaques signify a place where some known figure once lived.
Noor Inayat Khan was a descendant of Tipu Sultan who had taken up residence in London and joined the British Secret Service. She had been sent to Germany code named ‘Madeleine’ during the Second World War. She was captured by Gestapu, the Nazi Germany’s police and was executed in 1944 at the Dachau Concentration Camp at the age of 30. She was posthumously awarded the Geroge Cross for bravery. Her biography was first written by an Indian author, Shrabani Basu and published in England.
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