World War II British Spy. She was born in Moscow, Russia, the daughter of Islamic mystic Pir Inayat Kahn and his American wife Begum Sharada Ameena (formerly Ora Ray Baker), and was a direct descendent of Tipu Sultan, the last Muslim sovereign of South India. In 1917 the family moved to England before settling in France in order to escape the upcoming Bolshevik Revolution. While in Paris she began to write children's stories for Paris Radio. A book of her stories was published in England in 1939. At the outbreak of World War II, her family moved back to England, where she joined the war effort by first being a nurse before being chosen as a Special Operative Executive. On June 6, 1943 she became the first female special agent to go behind enemy lines when she was parachuted into France. Shortly after her arrival in France, the Gestapo made mass arrests in an attempt to destroy the Paris resistance groups. England gave her an opportunity to return home, but she declined, realizing she was one of the few operators left that could transfer much needed information to the Allied forces. She stayed one step ahead of the enemy for several months, but was eventually captured after being betrayed by a double agent. After refusing to sign a declaration stating she would no longer assist the Allies, she became the first agent sent to Germany. She remained imprisoned in solitary confinement from November 1943 to September 1944. Around September 12, 1944 she was taken to Dachau Concentration Camp and executed along with four other female agents. Posthumously she was awarded the George Cross from Britain and the Croix de Guerre with Gold Star from France. She is also honored on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England dedicated to those Allied Air Force personnel with no known grave. The novel "The Tiger Claw", published in 2004, is based on her life.