Part six
Suggested inquiry questions: What do we know happened to Noor Khan?
Potential activities: Explore Major Gubbins' report; discuss what it means to be a hero.
Download: Lesson pack
Explain to the pupils that they are going to listen to a document written by Major Gubbins, Head of the Special Operations Executive.
What has happened to Noor Khan? What is Major Gubbins recommending should be done? Why?
Tasks
Listen to the audio of the document:
Explain to the pupils that Noor Khan was arrested in October 1943 and attempted to escape twice from the SD Headquarters. In November she was taken to Pforzheim prison in Germany and was kept there for 10 months before being moved to Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed on 13 September 1944.
Noor Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949, and a French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star as recognition for her bravery. But as she was still considered ‘missing’ in 1946, she could not be recommended for a Member of the Order of the British Empire as Gubbins had suggested. Instead she was mentioned in Despatches in October 1946 (an official report sent to high command that detailed her brave actions).
Explain to the pupils that there is a plaque at Dachau Memorial Hall and a bust of Noor Khan in Gordon Square Gardens, Bloomsbury, London. Noor Khan is also the first woman of South Asian descent to have a blue plaque in London where she stayed at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury.
Inspiring people and modern day heroes
Each pupil can choose their own inspiring person, for example: Malala Yousafzai, Marcus Rashford, Captain Sir Tom Moore, Lewis Hamilton, Greta Thunburg.
Ask them to create a poster of their hero (you could bring in some cross-curricular links with Art here, perhaps looking at Portraits or working with paint, collage, or even sculpting out of clay).
Ask the pupils to talk about why they consider this person a ‘hero’. You could use the pupils’ work to create a classroom exhibition, and use small audio recordings of the pupils talking about their heroes to accompany this.
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Suggested inquiry questions: What do we know happened to Noor Khan?
Potential activities: Explore Major Gubbins' report; discuss what it means to be a hero.
Download: Lesson pack
The National Archives
