Template for iconic MI6 secretary That was the real Moneypenny

For decades, the work and her name remained hidden in the MI6 history books. Kathleen Pettigrew was the real Moneypenny. A new publication brings light into the darkness.

MI6, the British secret service, is best known for the Bond films and books by Ian Fleming. He was inspired not only by the spies who later appeared on the big screen as James Bond, but also by the women who played an important role in MI6, as The Guardian writes.

One of the women, Kathleen Pettigrew, was MI6's most senior secretary and served under five MI6 chiefs. It was there that she met Ian Fleming, who called Miss Moneypenny "Miss 'Petty' Pettaval" in his first draft of Casino Royale. Until now, little was known about her work and the role she played in some of the greatest espionage operations in British history.

Dr. Claire Hubbard-Hall, author of the forthcoming book "Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence", has so far uncovered secret evidence suggesting that Pettigrew was involved in the transmission of messages to and from Hut 3 at Bletchley Park. Including the messages that Alan Turing and his team decrypted using the Enigma machine.

Pettigrew had more power than Moneypenny

She monitored radio communications between Blethley Park and MI6 agents operating overseas during the Second World War and accompanied Stewart Menzies, the head of MI6, to top secret wartime meetings with Winston Churchill. In 1946, Pettigrew was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for her work. She wielded far more power and authority in her role than the fictional Miss Moneypenny, says Hubbard-Hall.

"Being seen as a modest woman - a secretary - was the perfect disguise. She did much more," Hubbard-Hall said. "She was perhaps the only person in Whitehall who knew every single secret. In terms of intelligence, everything would have crossed her desk."

The author was able to trace Pettigrew's 37-year career thanks to newly published MI6 documents. Pettigrew wrote her initials in the top left-hand corner of the secret documents she wrote. These have now been displayed at the National Archives in England.

These documents reveal that she began her career in the Special Branch during the First World War when she attended police interrogations of undercover German spies, including Mata Hari, a notorious "'femme fatale' who bedded men to learn their secrets and was eventually caught and executed by firing squad," according to Hubbard-Hall.

Bettigrew was born in Bermondsey, south-east London, in 1898 and was the daughter of a merchant. Little was previously known about the spy. She was neither married nor did she have children.

After she retired, a relative jokingly asked her if she had been like Miss Moneypenny. He told Hubbard-Hall that Pettigrew replied without hesitation: "I was Miss Moneypenny. But with more power."

Spy fever in the 1940s

Other women whose historical contribution to British intelligence is featured in the book include Agnes Blake, who was the first female agent to join MI6 in 1909. Winifred 'Winnie' Spink, the first female agent sent to Russia to witness the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, also made an important contribution to British intelligence.

During this period, novelists made everyday espionage the subject of their books and a veritable spy fever broke out in Europe. But it was not only in novels that nations invested in the secret service. In reality, Germany also smuggled more and more spies to England and other countries. The Secret Service Bureau was founded in Great Britain. At this time, Ian Fleming used the adventures of the real MI6 spies and thus the series of novels by probably the most famous spies on the planet was born.