A VALE woman who worked on the top secret Enigma project during World War Two has died at the age of 85.

Christine Trollope, who lived for many years in Bishampton, was once a key member of the team that cracked the coded messages of the Third Reich.

Mrs Trollope was in Paris when France fell, and with thousands of other refugees she trekked across the country to make a perilous escape from Biarritz on a cargo ship across the U-boat infested Bay of Biscay.

She was a translator with an international reputation and ten languages at her command, with a first class degree in French and German.

After the war she joined the Communist Party, taught at an East End school, qualified as a psychiatric social worker and, after completing a doctorate in Old French, became a lecturer at Birmingham University, where she met her husband Michael in 1956.

Mr Trollope said she was always very modest about her achievements. He said "She lacked all pretension. If you asked her what she did, she would reply 'Oh, I'm just an odd job woman'."

Mrs Trollope was best known in the Vale for running what was believed to be England's smallest bookshop in Pershore market, and for her book Pershore, Yesterday's Town. She was a founder member of the village amateur dramatic group, Bishampton Barnstormers, and was active in many other societies, including the WI.

Mrs Trollope died peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday, July 22 at Pirton Grange Care Home after a long battle with diabetes and Alzheimer's. She is also survived by her son Nick, daughter Mary and four grandchildren.

Her funeral took place on Tuesday at Worcester crematorium, and a party in celebration of Mrs Trollope her life is to be held at 43 Newlands, Pershore, this Sunday, at 3pm.