Today English Heritage is unveiling one of its famous Blue Plaques in memory of WWII secret agent Noor Inayat Kahn, who was brutally tortured and murdered by the Nazis. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949.
I remember reading about Noor – or ‘Madeleine’, to use her code name – while researching the third novel of the Esme Quentin series, The Malice of Angels, which was inspired by the work of WWII secret agents, known as Special Operations Executives, or SOEs.
Noor’s mother was American and her father was descended from, Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, the last Moghul emperor of Southern India (pay attention, here - this comes up later in the post! 😉). As such, Noor was technically an Indian Princess.
Sarah Helm’s excellent book, A Life in Secrets, is the story of Vera Atkins, the woman whose job was to recruit and deploy the SOEs into occupied France. Vera took her responsibilities very seriously and after the war, was diligent in her quest to find out what had happened to every single one of her charges.
Noor’s story was one of the most complex cases to crack and one which Vera took to her heart. You can read a summary of Noor’s life and death on English Heritage’s website.
But if the subject interests you, I’d urge you to read Sarah Helm’s book as it’s fascinating, gives a much more detailed account and shows the pains Vera went to discover the truth about the SOEs she’d sent behind enemy lines.
As I mentioned, I knew about Noor from coming across her during my research for The Malice of Angels. But I’ve since stumbled upon another connection within a family history context – something which has always been a complete mystery.
Amongst my husband’s parents’ personal papers were two tiny Indian letters, apparently posted in 1847, along with a translation of the addressee, Lodd Girderdofs Govindofs at Madras and a brief explanation of who he was. We’ve no idea who wrote it, as my husband doesn’t recognise the handwriting.
(You can find out more about the letters in a previous post I wrote, An Indian Mystery)
The accompanying note explains that Lodd Girderdofs Govindofs “was a very wealthy Hindu merchant who loaned the Rajah of Mysore money with which he employed the soldiers of the East India Company to drive Tippu [sic] Sultan out of Mysore.”
We haven’t yet worked out why my husband’s family had the letters – we don’t know of anyone who served in India, was born there - or even what the letters say (there seems to be a difference of opinion as to whether they're in Gujarati or Telugu).
But… to add a tantalising little snippet to the story… When Noor was recruited by the security services, in the interests of security and to disguise her Indian heritage, she took on her mother’s maiden name (her mother was born Ora Ray Baker) and called herself Nora Baker. My husband’s paternal grandmother’s maiden name was also Baker.
Just a coincidence? It’s a common name after all. Or maybe… there’s a connection?
Scenario suggestions welcome!
Yes, I also heard her mentioned on the BBC, too, Carolyn, on the radio this morning. It was what made me change my plans for today’s blog post, as I’d read about Noor in Sarah Helm’s book when researching The Malice of Angels, and had been fascinated by her story. It was actually while I was in the middle of writing the post and checking a fact in Helm’s book that I suddenly thought... hang on a minute, this rings a bell! So I pulled out the info on the Indian letters and there it was. Quite intriguing!
BTW I saw that Noor was mentioned on the BBC one o’clock news today!
Thanks for your thoughts about the language, Carolyn. Interesting that Telugu is more cursive. It was quite hotly debated when I appealed for help on Twitter. The gentleman who gave me feedback on the stamps (mentioned in my earlier post about the letters) was also of a mind it was Gujarati. He said he should know, as he was a native!
Intriguing! I think the fact of the Baker surname being in both Noor's and your husband's family is definitely more than a coincidence, given there is seemingly no other connection. As you say, why would they keep those letters? To me with my very little knowledge of Indian languages, it does look like Gujarati. Telegu is a much more cursive script. But as I said, my knowledge is limited!
What a great family connection. I've always been intrigued by The East India Company, particularly since watching the BBC TV series Taboo, though I'm not sure how much of its portrayal in the story was historical fact and how much was fiction!