Cambridge to remember Noor Inayat Khan

The talk on November 11 will see the launch of the fund-raising drive for a memorial bust of Noor to be installed in Gordon Square in London.

The bust will be the first Memorial to an Asian woman in Britain it will also be the first Memorial to a Muslim in this country. Noor was a secret agent in the Second World War. A descendant of Tipu Sultan, the erstwhile ruler of Mysore, Noor was infiltrated into occupied France under the code name of Madeleine.

She was the first woman radio operator to be sent in the field. She was betrayed, captured, and executed at Dachau Concentration Camp. She was posthumously awarded Britain's highest civilian honour, the George Cross. France awarded her the Croix de Guerre.

Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert, welcoming the decision to kick off the fund-raiser at the Trinity college, said: "Noor's story is testament to the fact that regardless of race and religion, people will stand together against evil and fight for freedom and democracy.

"Her story is an inspiration and she is one of hundreds of thousands of armed forces personnel from all nationalities who have given their lives so that we can have a future. On this Remembrance Day, we should reflect on their sacrifice and honour their memory by working to build strong, united communities like the one we are so fortunate to have here in Cambridge".

Trinity College, Cambridge has a long association with the Indian sub-continent. India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was a student at Trinity. Mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan studied at the Trinity college as did Muhammad Iqbal, the philosopher and poet.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was Master of Trinity from 1998 to 2004