ED HATTON likes to muse on what the woman he knew as “Auntie Marjorie” got up to during the Second World War.

And he’s got cause.

Letters Marjorie Hatton sent back from behind blurred lines hint at her part in a secret unit, the work of which remains largely undefined to this day.

Ed has handed those letters on to the County Records Office this week.

Now, he can mull over the stories they so teasingly don’t tell.

Ed’s “Auntie Marjorie’s” actually his third cousin.

She was the sister of Brian Hatton, the boy from Broomy Hill, Hereford, who grew into an artistic talent ready to be ranked among Britain’s best but died in the First World War.

Ed’s reading revealed Marjorie to be a member of a highly specialised and top secret psychological warfare unit in Italy where she lived for a time.

Through the letters, Ed can be sure Marjorie was accorded both ‘officer’ and ‘privileged personnel’ status in shrugging off middle age to parachute into clandestine combat zones, working with resistance fighters.

But much of the correspondence is “colour” accounting for down-time between missions.

The letters link Marjorie, who went by the name of “Polindep”, to this psychological warfare unit.

Ed’s research so far suggests Polindep stood for political intelligence department which was either an offshoot of – or cover for – the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), the most obscure of Britain’s wartime intelligence agencies, which conducted propaganda operations.

There was a department in the Foreign Office that was devoted to political intelligence and supplied civilian personnel to the PWE.

With the letters read, Ed says the records office is the best place for them now.

He will get to work on the stories that are still to be told.

Marjorie did much to sustain Brian’s legacy, her biggest achievement being her part in the building and endowment of the former Hatton Gallery – opened as an annex to the former Churchill House Museum in 1973, which held 900 of her brother’s works now kept by Herefordshire Council.

Though much of Marjorie’s post-war life revolved around revealing her brother’s talents, this devoted sister kept herself to herself,.

She referred to her service in the Second World War as ‘one of those hush-hush jobs’ for the Foreign Office.

Censored letters Marjorie sent to her sister Ailsa – then living in London – during the closing stages of the war raised ‘hush-hush’ to a whisper.

Ed was handed the letters earlier this year when Marjorie’s cousin Diana Stallard died.

Diana, who also lived at Broomy Hill, was executor on Marjorie’s death in 1981.