Once upon a time, a beautiful, young, Indian princess volunteered to be a spy for England during WWII against the Nazis. She defied all odds, saved lives, and was eventually captured, tortured, and executed. Though she is dead, like other Warrior Poets of the past, she still speaks.

Her name was Noor Inayat Khan, code named 'Madeleine', and I love her story because she is an unlikely hero. We've done other Warrior Poet profiles in the past covering similar unlikely heroes such as Benjamin Doss of Hacksaw Ridge, Audie Murphy, Nina Petrova, and Ludamila Pavlachinko.

Noor aka Madeleine, descended from a Sultan, meaning she was technically a princess. She was born in Moscow, raised in France, and later moved to England. She was the daughter of a Muslim Sufi father and an American mother. When WWII broke out, and Madeleine saw the devastation, she wanted to help even though she stuck to the pacifism taught by her father. She decided to become a radio operator and was quickly picked up by the Secret Operations Executive (SOE) to become a spy. After training, Madeleine parachuted into Nazi occupied France where she gave intelligence to the British until she was eventually caught (due to a double crossing), tortured, and killed. Her sacrifice, and heroism is extraordinary and begs our remembrance, as we may become bolder by her example.