Spy Princess (11 page)

In February 1942 Dalton was replaced by Lord Selborne, a friend of Churchill, who had backed him over his India policy in the 1930s. He was the grandson of Lord Salisbury and had greater access to the Prime Minister. From this period, the SOE started coming into its own, the groundwork having been done. The first agents had entered occupied territory and the organisation now grew in strength. At the height of its operations in 1944, about 15,000 people passed through the SOE. It employed 1,500 wireless operators and cipher clerks at four receiving stations in Britain and worked round the clock looking out for messages coming in from several hundred agents behind enemy lines. Some 10,000 men and 3,000 women worked for it around the globe in various headquarters, missions and sub-stations; about 5,000 of these were agents in the field, almost all of them men. They worked with an estimated two to three million active resisters in Europe alone.
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Most SOE recruits were receiving messages from the agents in the field and working as coding clerks and wireless operators. Others worked in planning, administration, intelligence operations, supply, research, security and transport. Some were employed in the ‘dirty tricks’ department covering explosives, forgeries and disguises. The switchboard began with 12 lines and grew to 200 at the peak of operations. In London, close to the Baker Street headquarters, nearby streets like Dorset Square and Portman Square housed various country and technical sections of the SOE at Orchard Court, Montague Mansions and Chiltern Court. Interview rooms were at the Victoria Hotel. Orchard Court at Portman Square had the offices of the F-section, where Noor would work.

Recruitment for the SOE had to be done in secret. As with any intelligence organisation most of the recruits came from recommendations and personal contacts, and were family or friends or simply part of the old-school network. Later, as the need for recruits grew, a general instruction was informally put out to all services department to look out for people with language skills.

Language was crucial to recruitment in the SOE. Maurice Buckmaster, head of F-section of the SOE, wrote in his book
Specially Employed
that the vetting process was elaborate. First the MI (Military Intelligence) sent in a list of people with language skills. However, ‘fluent French’ was not enough. Applicants could not have the slightest trace of a British accent and had to speak French like a native. Their appearance, too, had to be just right. They would have to be taken as a Frenchman by a Frenchman. That was the acid test. Though the first few recruits to the SOE were French, they were soon debarred from joining since they were recruited to the Free French led by de Gaulle. The SOE had to narrow down its recruitment drive to French-speaking Britons, which was not easy. Usually people who had one French parent or those who had lived a considerable time in France were recruited. Later, Canadians, Americans, South Africans and Mauritians were appointed.

It was crucial to get the right candidate because the wrong one might not only put his own life at risk but endanger the rest of the group as well. Even the weakest link in the chain had to be strong or lives were at risk. An agent unable to speak the French of a Frenchman could risk the exposure of his whole group.

Once the language issue had been cleared, the next test was that of character. There were many at the outset who felt that in order to counter the notorious Abwehr, the German security police, the SOE recruits would have to be drawn from among similar thugs who could beat them at their own game. But SOE officials did not favour this approach, finding that men with shady pasts often did unsatisfactory work. Instead they preferred a person with ‘character and steadfastness of purpose’. ‘Rugged honesty’ was one of the things on the checklist for candidates. He or she could be a professional with no military background. Even physical fitness did not matter too much as the SOE officials were convinced that training could work wonders for anyone. ‘We were vitally concerned with essential guts,’ wrote Maurice Buckmaster.
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It was important to get the right person for the job, as the agent in the field would be working alone, often relying on himself with tenuous radio links with headquarters which could fail at any moment. The candidates were told that the job meant continuous strain, perhaps for years on end. There were no holidays, no home leave, no local leave, no Sundays or bank holidays. Instead the work involved endlessly pitting their wits against the German Abwehr and the French Milice (the pro-German French militia). Most serious of all, there was no protection, because the agents would not be in uniform, and they faced almost certain death if captured. Potential recruits were studied by psychologists at interviews and given full freedom to opt out if they felt they couldn’t handle the task.

In April 1942, the War Cabinet passed a resolution to allow the SOE to use female agents in the field.
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The argument was that women would find it easier to move around under cover of shopping or doing the daily chores and were less likely to be questioned than men.

And so it was that Noor was called upon to meet Selwyn Jepson, chief recruitment officer for the SOE. She had been under observation by Military Intelligence ever since her recruitment. She had already been trained in transmission and had increased her Morse speed during a specialist course. She had cleared the language test as her French was flawless. The rest would depend on the interview and her own willingness to join.

Selwyn Jepson was a writer of thrillers who sometimes also wrote under the name of E. Potter. The son of crime fiction writer Edgar Jepson, he had been educated at St Paul’s school in London and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was bilingual and had written several mystery books including
The Qualified Adventurer
,
That Fellow MacArthur
and
Love in Peril
. His book
Man Running
was later turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Jepson was a skilled interviewer and appointed many of the women recruits in F-section. He generally used the bleak rooms at the Victoria hotel for his interviews. Jepson’s greatest skill lay in the fact that he could judge a person’s character fairly accurately in only a few meetings. He once said that he very seldom changed the impression a prospective agent made on him during the first quarter of a minute of their first interview.
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On 10 November 1942, Noor met Jepson in the Hotel Victoria. She thought she had been called by the War Office. Jepson found that with Noor he could come straight to the point. He had never felt this way with other potential recruits. He recalled later that ‘in spite of a great gentleness of manner’ she seemed to have ‘an intuitive sense of what might be in my mind for her to do. Also, I realised it would be safe to be frank with her, that “her security” as we called it, would be good, that if she felt herself unable to take it on, she would not talk about the reason she had been called to the War Office.’
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This was in startling contrast to the other potential recruits who were told that if they repeated anything of what they had heard in the room they would be violating the Official Secrets Act and face dire consequences. Most agents had two or three interviews in which they were broken in and a third where they were asked to decide, but Noor was recruited after just one interview.

Jepson’s main task at these interviews was to look at the person’s motive and character. He needed to know why people would volunteer to risk their lives – was it patriotism, an un-satisfactory private life, a need for revenge or just recklessness? He also needed to ensure that the potential agent sitting opposite him was not impulsive. Prudence and caution were, according to him, an agent’s most important qualities.
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Jepson had a long talk with Noor about her family and background and then moved on to France and the war. He told her about the current state of affairs in France and the aim of the British war effort to interfere with German plans. He explained to Noor what her duties would entail: that she would be working as a clandestine wireless operator in the underground along with other British officers, helping the Resistance to sabotage the Germans. Throughout the interview they spoke in French. Jepson felt that Noor was almost perfect for the job of a wireless operator. He felt she was careful, tidy and painstaking by nature and ‘would have all the patience in the world’ – an essential characteristic for a wireless operator.

As Noor sat opposite him, Jepson told her that the assignment was one of extreme danger, that in the event of capture she could be interrogated by the Gestapo – a terrifying experience for anyone – and that since she would not be in uniform she would not have any protection under international laws of warfare. In short, that she could be shot and never return. She listened quietly as he spoke, absorbing the full implications of his words.

Jepson told Noor that there was no monetary reward for the mission. She would receive her ordinary service pay (tax-free for SOE), without increment or bonus and it would be held for her in England while she was in France. If she came back alive it would be paid to her, if not to her next of kin. Her only personal satisfaction would be the knowledge of the service she gave.

‘I had scarcely finished when she said with the same simplicity of manner which had characterised her from the outset of our talk, that she would like to undertake it,’ recalled Jepson.
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He said that he would normally be uneasy and reluctant to recruit someone who accepted the situation immediately, because it meant that it was being accepted without proper thought, or for a motive other than the pure sense of patriotic duty. In Noor’s case, however, he had no such misgivings, since he felt instinctively that she had thought about it deeply and would not change her mind.

As a writer himself, Jepson felt a natural affinity with Noor, as she had told him that she was a children’s writer and broadcaster. He even told her that she might be of more value to society if she continued as a writer who would be able to communicate with children after the war was over and heal the young minds who had lived through the destruction. But Noor shook her head and refused the offer to get away. ‘She was sure and confident. She would like to train and become an agent for us, if I thought she could make it,’ said Jepson. ‘I had not the slightest doubt that she could, and said so, and with rather more of the bleak distress which I never failed to feel at this point of these interviews, I agreed to take her on.’

Jepson saw Noor several times during her training and often had conversations with her about what she was going to do and the nature of the job, but he would never forget his first meeting with her and the impact it made on him:

I see her very clearly as she was that first afternoon, sitting in front of me in that dingy little room, in a hard kitchen chair on the other side of a bare wooden table. Indeed of them all, and they were many, who did not return, I find myself constantly remembering her with a curious and very personal vividness which outshines the rest … the small, still features, the dark quiet eyes, the soft voice, and the fine spirit glowing in her.

Noor was now told that she would be discharged from the WAAF and enrolled in the First Aid and Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), also known as the Women’s Transport Service. This department was the usual cover for women agents as it provided them with an excuse to train in the use of firearms (which, as WAAF, they were not allowed to do). It also gave them a uniform (which was useful during training) and gave them a reason to be away from home for long periods. It also served as a plausible cover story for family and friends and was used effectively by Noor. FANYs were employed in many positions, from drivers and telephone operators to wireless operators, canteen workers and prison guards. Since many female agents were both FANY and WAAF there was always a slight confusion as to where they actually belonged. Noor’s George Cross citation refers to her as a WAAF officer while a memorial to thirteen women SOE agents in Knightsbridge refers to her as FANY. Again the recommendation for the citation of her George Medal (which was later upgraded to the George Cross) was made out in the name of ‘Ensign N. Inayat Khan, a volunteer FANY’.

When she joined the SOE on 8 February, Noor was in the WAAF. On 12 February she was enrolled in FANY. Noor was later given an honorary commission by the WAAF. This is why her WAAF records show her as being discharged from the WAAF on 15 June 1943 and being given an honorary commission on 16 June as Assistant Section Officer in the WAAF.
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Noor was made an officer because the SOE felt that the rank would provide her some degree of security, as a German officer might hesitate to shoot her if she was an officer. Promotion to officer’s rank also meant an increase in allowance and Noor discovered that her mother would be eligible for a further allowance as a ‘displaced person’. She was now told to return to Abingdon and await her orders.

The meeting with Jepson had transported Noor into a different world, but there was a calmness about her as she absorbed the implications. She had been determined to help in any way to fight Hitler’s forces of occupation. She had also wanted to return to France, a country that she loved and felt most at home in. Despite the dangers of the job, Noor felt she was perfectly suited for it because of her language skills, understanding of French culture and her familiarity with Paris. She had no doubt in her mind that she wanted to take the challenge. Once she had made up her mind, the stubborn streak in her kept her going through the days ahead.

There was only one thing that troubled her. Noor was apprehensive about how her mother, still extremely frail and dependent on her, would take the news of her going away on service work. On 11 November Noor wrote to Jepson from Abingdon, having given some thought to the interview. Her formal letter of acceptance showed the courage and forthrightness that Jepson had noticed in her. She told Jepson that winning the war was more important than family ties.
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