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A shy woman who lived quietly suburbia is now believed to have been hiding an amazing secret - her life as a Cold War spy.

Eileen Burgoyne lived an almost reclusive life on an ordinary street in Twickenham, Surrey, for 20 years until she passed away aged 99.

But suspicions she was harbouring a secret past appeared to be confirmed when police cordoned off her home in February 2014, just months after her death.

A team of builders had discovered firearms at number 29 Grimwood Road - including a working Sten sub-machine gun, an austere British 9mm weapon used throughout the Second World War.

And now Eileen’s cousin Georgina Wood has revealed some of the intriguing belongings she was sent following her death which point to her having been a spy.

Among belongings she was sent were letters and telegrams from the War Office, photos of Hamburg devastated by Allied bombs, an invitation to a German hotel from a Lieutenant Colonel from 1945, pay-slips from the Woman’s Royal Army Corps and freedom passes from the Danish Allied Committee.

(Image: Cascade)

It is understood Eileen had worked for the intelligence services immediately after the Second World War and was posted overseas for the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (CSDIC), which operated interrogation centres around the world.

What is left of her personal file reveals she had two periods of service, 1945-47 and 1950-53, and that she was a talented linguist, having studied French and Spanish at college in Manchester.

The Metropolitan Police spokesman who accessed her file said there was clearly a lot of detail missing about what exactly she was doing for the CSDIC and there was even reference to files having been destroyed.

(Image: Cascade)

Among the effects sent to Ms Wood is an invitation to Kaiserhof Hotel in Bad Pyrmont, just one hour’s drive away from the controversial interrogation centre at Bad Nenndorf, opened by the CSDIC shortly after the war for the interrogation of Nazi prisoners.

The centre’s remit was later expanded to include people suspected of spying for the Soviet Union, but it was closed in 1947 amid accusations of the maltreatment of detainees.

Ian Cobain, a journalist who investigated alleged torture in interrogation centres including Bad Nennforf and Camp 020 on Ham Common for his book Cruel Britannia, said Ms Burgoyne may have worked as a typist or translator during the interrogation of prisoners.

He said: “Interrogations would have been seen as a man’s job but they sometimes had women in the room typing up what was said.

“There was a lot of admin that would have needed to be done but if she was a linguist then she may well have been a translator.”