Noor Inayat Khan

I recently applied for a job and...didn't get it. But I was so inspired by the brief - to draw portraits of historical British women - that I couldn't resist just going ahead and drawing for my own pleasure.

Here is the first of what I hope to be many: Noor Inayat Khan.

Noor was an actual genuine princess. Her father was Indian royalty, her mother an American. She was born in Moscow, moved to London when she was a few months old, and then to France as a child. There are some who would say that she shouldn't be classified as British, but Noor certainly must have felt so, because she volunteered for Britain's SOE (Special Operations Executive) in WW2, where she was smuggled into France and became the first SOE female wireless operator.

The average life-expectancy for an Allied wireless operator in Nazi-occupied France was six weeks. Think about that. Noor lasted four months, before being betrayed, and ultimately arrested by the Gestapo.

Noor was a pacifist, who followed the teachings of Gandhi. She wanted to do something to fight fascism but she hated the idea of hurting anyone, and found it difficult to lie. Despite this, she gave no information to the Nazis even though they interrogated, beat, and shackled her hand and foot in solitary confinement for 10 months.

Noor Inayat Khan was executed in Dachau concentration camp in September 1944.

I wanted to include her as an inspiring British woman because she did something incredibly brave despite being horribly scared and uncertain. She was also Britain's first Muslim war heroine.

In the image you can see a Lysander, the plane that ferried SOE into occupied France. Opposite the plane is a dove, to symbolise Noor's peaceful, pacifist beliefs. Underneath her name there is a banner with her codename - "Madeleine" - written in morse code, to honour her work as a wireless operator. The red poppies of course symbolise those fallen in wartime. At the bottom of the image is the George Cross which Noor was awarded posthumously and is the highest British civilian honour. (Noor was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre). Either side of this is the Cross of Lorraine which was the symbol of the Free French during WW2, and the Star and Crescent symbolising her Muslim faith (this is a classic case of illustration not telling the entire truth: this is widely held to be the symbol of Islam but actually is traditionally that of the Ottoman Empire, as Islam has no defining symbology).