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Queen Camilla unveils portrait of Noor Inayat Khan
The portrait is placed in the "Noor Inayat Khan Room."
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Britain’s Queen Camilla unveiled a new portrait of Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian-origin spy and descendant of Tipu Sultan, at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Club. The gesture was in honour of Khan's courageous role as an undercover agent for Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.
The 76-year-old senior royal, also named a room at the RAF Club the ‘Noor Inayat Khan Room’ where the portrait is displayed opposite a stained-glass window that celebrates women in the RAF. The window was inaugurated by her late mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2018.
Noor Inayat Khan was a part of the RAF's Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) when she was enlisted into the SOE in 1942. Khan subsequently achieved the remarkable distinction of being one of just two WAAF members to receive the George Cross (GC), the highest accolade conferred for acts of exceptional heroism or extraordinary courage in perilous situations.
“Noor was the first woman SOE operator to be infiltrated into France and was landed by Lysander aircraft on 16 June 1943. During the following weeks, the Gestapo arrested most of the Paris Resistance Group in which she worked. Despite the danger, Noor refused to return to England because she did not wish to leave her French comrades without communications and she hoped also to rebuild the Group,” the RAF Club said in a statement.
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