Kathleen Pettigrew
Kathleen Pettigrew (1898 - 1990) was a secretary within the police and British Intelligence services during the First and Second World Wars who reached the most senior roles. She is better known as inspiration for Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond novels and films.[1]
Pettigrew was born 27 February 1898 in Bermondsey in London to William and Ellen Pettigrew. Her father had been in casual work as a sealskin dresser, but soon after she was born the family moved to Westminster and both her parents became proprietors of a chandler's shop. Ellen Pettigrew continued with the shop after William died in 1915.[2]
Kathleen Pettigrew attended St Martin-in-the-Fields School for Girls until 1906. After training as a secretary from when she was 14, probably at Pitman Metropolitan School, Kathleen Pettigrew started work at 18 in 1916, in the police Special Branch during the First World War. She produced transcripts of the interrogation of German spies, including Mata Hari in addition to typing and filing confidential documents.[2]
After the war ended, Pettigrew joined MI6 where she worked for 37 years to became the most senior secretary in the organisation, working with five of its chiefs.[3] She accompanied at least one of them, Stewart Menzies at meetings with Winston Churchill. During the Second World War she was involved in message transmission within Bletchley Park as well as communication with overseas field agents.[2]
Pettigrew was made OBE in 1958 when she retired as a Senior Chief Executive Officer in the Foreign Office, after being previously awarded an MBE in 1946.[4]
Her life-long appreciation of parakeets began when some were kept in a pub near her family home in Westminster. She died in 1990.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Macintyre, Ben (5 April 2008). "Was Ian Fleming the real 007?". The Times. Archived from the original on 31 May 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
- ^ a b c d Hubbard-Hall, Claire (2024). Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence. W&N. p. 352. ISBN 1399603434.
- ^ Ferguson, Donna. "'Moneypenny with more power': book celebrates UK's forgotten female spies". The Guardian. No. 23 Sept 2024. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ "No. 41404". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1958. pp. 3521–3548.