A wartime secret service worker has left more than £1 million to charities and his family.

Stanley Burtwell, who died aged 86 and lived at the Drumconner Rest Home in Lancing, gave half of his £1,059,047 legacy to Barnardo's and the Parkinson's Disease Society.

Staff at the home in Brighton Road say Mr Burtwell, who was fluent in German, remained secretive about his intelligence-gathering work during the war and destroyed padlocked boxes of documents before his death.

Manager Roger Kinsman said: "He was a lovely old boy. He had Parkinson's when he came to us eight years ago but he always tried to do things himself. He was quite a proud man and never gave up.

"He said his sister and himself were in different departments of the secret service but he never talked about what he did.

"We always knew he had money because his bank manager used to visit him at the home. I think it's fantastic he left money to charity. He always wanted to help find a cure for Parkinson's disease."

Mr Burtwell was born in China, the son of a merchant. He was a brilliant linguist, speaking German and Portuguese fluently.

He worked for banks in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, before moving to Sussex more than 20 years ago. He lived with his sister in Lancing before they both moved into the Drumconner Rest Home.

His second cousin June Turner said: "He was very quiet and never married. He was a very private person."

A spokeswoman for Barnardo's said Mr Burtwell left a quarter of his fortune each to Barnardo's and the Parkinson's Disease Society and the remaining half to relatives.