Obituary: Sir Peter Russell

* Sir Peter Russell, scholar, secret agent. Died aged 92.

Sir Peter Russell, a New Zealand scholar who died recently in Oxford, England, was recruited as a British spy during the Spanish Civil War.

Peter Edward Lionel Russell, born at Christchurch on October 24, 1913, died on June 22, 2006, aged 92.

His father, Bernard Wheeler, was an Army officer and his mother, Rita, the younger daughter of Thomas Russell, a New Zealand newspaper proprietor.

Sir Peter went to Queen's College in 1931 to study French and Spanish, and began a doctorate in history in 1935.

He was recruited into the British Secret Service and sent to Spain during the Civil War. After being arrested photographing warships he was facing a firing squad when released on the orders of fascist dictator Francisco Franco.

He joined MI6 in World War II and in 1940 moved the Duke and Duchess of Windsor from Lisbon to the Bahamas, reportedly with instructions to shoot them if they were about to fall into German hands.

After the war, Sir Peter became one of the great scholars of the 20th century, producing seminal work on Spanish mediaeval, renaissance and golden age literature and culture.