Secrets of the suburban spy: the case of Eileen Burgoyne

In the two decades she lived at the very ordinary house at 26 Grimwood Drive, Eileen Burgoyne was a quiet neighbour, according to her fellow residents.

In later years she suffered from dementia, and when she died just three people attended her funeral.

But evidence of a past life as a secret agent came to light when builders, renovating the property after her death, came across a cache of ammunition and weapons – including a still-functioning Sten sub-machine gun.

The discovery briefly prompted the evacuation of neighbouring homes as police carried out a thorough search of the property.

Police later confirmed that Ms Burgoyne had been 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 studied French and Spanish at college in Manchester and then served for two periods from 1945-47 and 1950-53.

Ms Burgoyne’s cousin, Georgina Wood, who did not know her relative, let alone her colourful back story, was later sent her documents including letters and telegrams from the War Office, photos of Hamburg devastated by allied bombing raids, payslips from the Women’s Royal Army Corp and freedom passes from the Danish Allied Committee.

Also among her effects was an invitation to Kaiserhof Hotel, in Bad Pyrmont, which is just an hour’s drive from a controversial interrogation center at Bad Nenndorf, used by the CSDIC for interrogating Nazi prisoners.

One of that trio of mourners at her funeral, former neighbour in Grimwood Drive Nicky Murley, who remembered her as “an avid theatre-goer”, only wished Eileen Burgoyne’s service to her country could have been celebrated during her lifetime, rather than after her death.