COURAGE UNDER FIRE: Noor in WAAF uniform in 1942

The week before she left, Noor was brought to the flat at Orchard Court, manned by the famous butler Parks, where agents stayed before they left on their missions. The time the agents spent at Orchard Court was a brief period of luxury before their gruelling, dangerous stints in the field. Here the last checks were made, cover story rechecked, details pored over. Parks presided over Orchard Court with skill. He was a former messenger at the Paris branch of the Westminster bank and he had an excellent memory. He knew every agent by their training pseudonym and made each one feel welcome when they came to the flat for their last briefing. Parks knew exactly how to ensure that agents did not bump into one another during their time in the flat. It was SOE (Special Operations Executive) policy to discourage the agents from meeting in the field, and the best way to do this was to make sure they did not meet too much in England. It was particularly important for agents never to tell anyone where in occupied France they were going. As it was highly likely that two agents who were due to go into the field would discuss this if they met in the flat, Parks had to make sure they never had the opportunity to do so.

At Orchard Court, where the walls were covered with maps of France and Paris, the agent was given suitable clothes to match his or her cover story. Appearance was most important and a thorough check on French mannerisms and style was crucial. If the hairstyle was not suitably French, it had to be changed. If the agent had an English-style dental filling, then that would have to be replaced by an expensive-looking gold plug as was usual on the continent.

All the agents’ clothes were specially tailored by Claudi Pulver, a refugee from Vienna, who put her design skills to use and tailored clothes for the agents in the European style. The collars, the cuffs, and most importantly, the labels were carefully checked. An English label could give the name away, as could a wrongly sewn button, or the style of the collar. Name-tabs of tailors in the arrondissement of the Etoile were sewn in. Noor, playing a nurse, needed a few simple dresses.

Every caution had to be taken to see that the cover story was watertight. If the agent had a slight trace of foreign accent, the cover story would be made up to suit it. So if a person had a slight Canadian accent then a Canadian background would be worked into the cover story. The identities were created from places where the town halls had been bombed or destroyed and the records scattered.

Noor had already been given her cover story by Vera Atkins. She was to be Jeanne-Marie Renier, a children’s nurse. Jeanne-Marie was born in Blois on 25 April 1918. Her father Auguste had been a professor of philosophy in Princeton and her mother, Ray Baker, was American by birth and French by marriage. Her father was killed in the 1918 retreat on the Marne in the First World War. Her mother returned to Paris after the Armistice, and went back to America just before the collapse of France in 1940.

Jeanne-Marie had been to school in St Cloud, and passed her Bacchot at the Lyc?e de St Cloud, then went to the Sorbonne in 1935. She studied there till 1938, specialising in child psychology. She looked after children in various families, and when the war broke out she worked as a nurse in Paris. Some of these facts for the cover story were drawn out from Noor’s real life. Noor went to school in St Cloud and had a degree in child psychology from the Sorbonne.

The SOE’s skillful forgery department issued ‘Jeanne-Marie’ with a fake identity card, a ration card and a textile card.

Noor had asked Maurice Buckmaster if she could work in the Paris area, as she was familiar with it. Though this posed the danger that she might be recognised, Noor was confident that she would be most effective in that region. Occupied Paris was also the most dangerous place to operate as the city was crawling with the Gestapo.

As a telegraphist, or ‘pianist’, as the job was called by SOE, Noor would need a transmitter. Since she was a petite 5 ft 3 in and weighed under eight stone, she needed lightweight equipment. Transmitters were always in short supply and were imported from US manufacturers and then adapted for installation in a suitcase.

Finally, the agents were given a set of four pills. One was a type that would induce sleep for six hours and was to be administered in the enemy’s tea or coffee. The second pill was a stimulant, Benzedrine, which would keep the agent awake in an emergency. The third could produce stomach disorders. This was for the agent if she wanted to sham an indisposition. The fourth was the L pill, a suicide pill containing cyanide which the agent had the option of taking if they were captured and did not want to face Gestapo interrogation.

A few days before she left, Noor paid an unexpected visit to her friend Jean. She arrived late at night at Jean’s flat and the two of them talked late into the night. Jean remembered that Noor was looking very beautiful, that her skin was glowing and there was a shine in her eyes. Jean thought she was in love. ‘There was an extraordinary degree of excitement in her,’ said Jean. She had stars in her eyes. She wanted to go.’

Noor was, in fact, very much in love and engaged to a man at the war office. Strangely, she did not tell Jean about her romance. Perhaps this was because her relationships had so often gone wrong, and there was so much uncertainty in her life at the moment that she did not want to tempt fate by telling too many people. Even her own family never discovered who he was.

At one point that evening Noor remarked that she had always been afraid of being tortured. She wondered how she would cope if she were tortured. ‘I don’t see how one can know?’ she said, and then added: ‘I don’t think I would ever speak.’

As they talked Jean was struck by the change in Noor’s personality. Though Noor had always been a highly-strung person, Jean had never seen her like this before. After breakfast, Noor got up and said ‘I am going to go now’, and hugged and kissed Jean. It was the last time Jean saw her friend.

On 15 June, 1943, Noor was released from the WAAF and the following day, she was awarded an honourary commission in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as Assistant Section Officer.

It was nearly a year since she had attended the interview for her commission in the same service, where she had spoken emotionally about Indian independence and almost ruined her chances. But life had taken a different course for her. Now she was to be sent on a dangerous mission for king and country.

On the afternoon of 16 June, Vera Atkins called for Noor at Orchard Court in an open car (this estate car had been nicknamed ‘the hearse’ by the SOE.) They drove through the Sussex countryside in full summer bloom with honeysuckle and marguerites. Noor hardly said a word. Vera Atkins said she had a serene expression on her face and a half smile playing on her lips. It was nearly evening by the time they reached Tangmere in Sussex.

After a hearty farewell supper, Vera Atkins led Noor upstairs to a room. On one of the chairs lay a novel called “Remarkable Women”. Noor remarked that the men probably enjoyed reading about remarkable women.

Vera Atkins replied that perhaps someone would write a book about the ‘most remarkable women of all.’ She commented to herself: ‘That book will have to be rewritten after these girls have done their stuff.’ Noor started to get ready, putting on her green oilskin coat. In her handbag was a French identity card, ration card and her Webley pistol. The rest of her belongings ? radio, clothes and personal effects ? would be parachuted separately.

Vera Atkins did the usual last-minute pocket check for English cigarettes, English bus tickets or English money ? anything that could risk the agent’s life if discovered. As she was getting ready, Noor noticed a silver bird on Vera Atkins’ suit and remarked how lovely it was. The older woman took off the bird and pinned it on Noor’s lapel. When Noor protested, she said: ‘It’s a little bird, it will bring you luck.’

Soon there was a knock on the door signalling that it was time to go. The full moon shone high in the sky. A large Ford estate car was waiting to take them to the airstrip. There, silhouetted against the night sky, she could see the two Lysanders waiting for their passengers. Noor stepped out into the night and walked on English soil for the last time. She felt she was keeping her promise to the people of France. She was going back.

In France that evening, waiting agents received a message in the middle of an entertainment programme on the BBC French service. It said: “Jasmine is playing her flute.” It was the code telling them to prepare for the arriving agents.

Extracted from: Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu; Sutton Publishing; Price ? 18.99