"Margaret Spencer was captured by the German Gestapo during the war and in a separate incident shot in the back by a sniper. But Margaret, of Westham, Eastbourne, East Sussex, was unable to tell anyone of her heroics until she was 77 after signing the Official Secrets Act. After leaving the Secret Intelligence Service - now known as MI6 - she worked as a community nurse and midwife, with the bullet still lodged near her spine. She was recruited at the start of the war, given a pistol and instructed to round up German spies and Communists along the south coast. She did all this while she was still working as a nurse. She was also involved in operations in occupied Europe and was once parachuted in dressed as a nun. She was well known in the community and very popular Jill Parsons During one of her daring missions she was captured by the brutal Nazi secret police, the Gestapo. She was also shot by a German sniper and she remarkably lived the rest of her life with the bullet lodged in her back. Following the war she was forced to keep her experiences a secret and was only allowed to reveal her heroics - and hand back her gun - at the age of 77. She had lived in Eastbourne with her husband Len before moving to Westham, where she was choirmaster at St Mary's Church. She was also a keen member of the local history group and an active member of the church. Friend Jill Parsons described Mrs Spencer as a 'wonderful woman' adding: "She was well known in the community and very popular." http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/490575/Former-spy-Margaret-Spencer-has-died
