The parents of popular British/Irish singer Chris de Burgh trained British spies in Malta during the Cold War, the Daily Mail has reported.

The discovery was made by her grandchild, Chris de Burgh's daughter's Rosanna Davison.

Charles and Maeve Davidson were trained in code making and in turn trained spies ahead of their deployment in Albania as part of 'Operation Valuable', one of the earliest Cold War attempts to overthrow the communist regime in Albania.

They moved to Malta in 1951 and settled in Rabat, where their two sons, including Chris, attended a small school and loved swimming.

In addition to coding, the men were taught how to handle guns and explosives, as well as how to survive on the run and other skills.

'The young men were being trained in Malta to operate behind communist lines in Albania and make life difficult for the communist authorities,' Maeve Davison told the newspaper.

What the Davisons were not told before arriving in Malta, was that the previous group of recruits sent to Albania had been discovered - picked up by Albanian authorities and executed.

The security leak was blamed on the training personnel in Malta, which was why the new group - including the Davisons - had been enlisted.

The Davisons found it difficult to make friends in Malta, as they couldn't answer questions about their jobs, and they worked at maintaining a distance from their neighbours to avoid accidentally revealing any information.

The couple even sent the children's nanny back to England when she became curious and asked too many questions.

One person with whom they did socialise, however, was Lord Louis Mountbatten - who was at the time Supreme Commander of the Nato fleet, based in Malta.

Mountbatten took a keen interest in their mission and often invited them to dinners and polo games - sparking Maeve's love of the sport, of which she became an enthusiastic player.

With sterling British society connections and an undisputed charisma about him, Mountbatten brought a cosmopolitan glamour to the island's close knit community.

Aside from their extracurricular activities, the Davisons found their day jobs intriguing, challenging and, at times, amusing.

After a stint marked by a glamorous social life and the occasional bizarre incident, the Davisons mission ultimately ended in tragedy. Devastatingly, the agents they trained met the same fate as the previous recruits: they were discovered by the Albanian authorities and executed.

'The appalling loss of life couldn't continue, so the operation was disbanded - though nobody was able to pinpoint how the Albanians were getting their information.'

They only got to known in 1963, when Kim Philby, a veteran member of British Intelligence, confessed to being a double-agent and defected to Russia.

The name rang a bell with Maeve: she had known Philby as an intelligence boss during their days in the Mediterranean, a period when their mission fell under his remit.

When he was revealed as a spy, the Davisons realised that it was very likely Philby who had been passing on the information about their Albanian trainees to his communist bosses.

After the Albanian training operation was disbanded, the Davisons left Malta and returned to England, looking for work.

The family went to Nigeria, where Col Davison had a job selling farm machinery to expatriates. They also moved to the Congo, but it was far too dangerous - and Maeve and her sons returned home.

They then settled in Wexford.

It wasn't long before Chris de Burgh became very well known. His daughter Rosanna won the title of Miss World in 2003 and enjoys a successful career as a model.

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