In a written statement, they admitted they had been Communists since their Cambridge days and disingenuously described themselves as political refugees, not spies. Then they boarded what was described as a small military-type aircraft which flew them to Moscow to be reunited with Donald. Required to take new names and identities, Maclean chose to be Mark Petrovich Frazer (after the Cambridge anthropologist Sir James Frazer of Golden Bough fame, a 12-volume study of mythology and religion). regarding his possible Soviet affiliations continued. The two-drink tradition remained but in time there was no longer a need to hide the bottle, she added. He died in 1983 at the age of 69, recording beforehand that I do not at all regret having done what seemed and still seems to me my duty. [11][pageneeded] On a short trip back from Spain, Philby tried to recruit Flora Solomon as a Soviet agent; she was the daughter of a Russian banker and gold dealer, a relative of the Rothschilds, and wife of a London stockbroker. Shortly after the extent of Philby's penetration was publicised in October. Philby claimed to have overheard discussion of this by chance and sent a report to his controller. Once hed gone, she rode out the public furore, the door-stepping journalists, the MI5 questioning, the abuse and insinuations, the bullying of her sons at school. They met each other socially but soon fell out. [70] The Dolmatova, a Soviet freighter bound for Odessa, had left Beirut that morning so abruptly that cargo was left scattered over the docks;[58] Philby claimed that he left Beirut on board this ship. He had five, one of whom, incidentally, was named after George Washington, the American president. Philby died of heart failure in Moscow in 1988. Colonel Redl from the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to WW1 probably was a more devastating spy. But though his love affair with the cause never wavered, his love affair with Melinda did. Burgess had to get to London to warn Maclean, who was under surveillance. They lived together for three years, until a younger woman caught the philandering Philby's eye. When he was instructed to remove and replace his boss, Felix Cowgill, he asked if it was proposed "to shoot him or something", but was told to use bureaucratic intrigue. All was reasonably well between them until Kim Philby the master-spy who recruited him back in their Cambridge days himself defected in 1963. He had got afraid that I would leave, and hidden the boot.". there is a new book on the shelves, a fictional account of philby and his recruitment when he went to vienna austria, then returning to Britain to carry out his duties. She cashed a substantial cheque, bought her toddler daughter some new clothes and settled an outstanding garage bill. [75], Upon his arrival in Moscow in January 1963, Philby discovered that he was not a colonel in the KGB, as he had been led to believe. In Vienna, working to aid refugees from Germany, Philby met Litzi Friedmann (born Alice Kohlmann), a young Austrian communist of Hungarian Jewish origins. [12][13] Philby had come to the Soviets' notice earlier that year in Vienna, where he had been involved in demonstrations against the government of Engelbert Dollfuss. He was implicated in a similar campaign in Albania. 00:50 GMT 17 Apr 2018 He feared that she would dump him because he was just a boring official in the British diplomatic service so to make myself look better and more important, I told her the reason why I led such a life. Source for information on Philby, Harry St. John Bridger: The Columbia . Harry St John Bridger Philby, CIE (3 April 1885 - 30 September 1960), also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah ( Arabic: ), was a British Arabist, adviser, explorer, writer, and a colonial intelligence officer who served as an advisor to King Abdulaziz al-Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia . Harry Philby. "[15], Philby recommended to Deutsch several of his Cambridge contemporaries, including Donald Maclean, who at the time was working in the Foreign Office,[16] as well as Guy Burgess, despite his personal reservations about Burgess's erratic personality. Clear rating. Golitsyn offered the CIA revelations of Soviet agents within American and British intelligence services. P&P free on orders over 15. His public position was that of First Secretary at the British Consulate; in reality, his intelligence work required overseeing British agents and working with the Turkish security services.[42]. This is absolutely the best place for us. The organization was one of several fronts operated by German communist Willi Mnzenberg, a member of the Reichstag who had fled to France in 1933. This turned out to be identical with Barclay's dispatch, convincing the NKVD that Philby had seen the full Barclay report. A more serious threat to Philby's position had come to light. A few days after her return to Switzerland, she told her mother she had run into an old friend in the local market and hed invited her and the children to stay with him for the weekend in his villa at the other end of Lake Geneva. Journalist Ben Macintyre, author of several works on espionage, speculated that MI6 might have left open the opportunity for Philby to flee to Moscow to avoid an embarrassing public trial. In December 1937, during the Battle of Teruel, a Republican shell hit just in front of the car in which Philby was travelling with the correspondents Edward J. Neil of the Associated Press, Bradish Johnson of Newsweek, and Ernest Sheepshanks[21] of Reuters. Weakened by alcoholism and frequent sickness, she died of influenza in December 1957.[91]. The double spys fourth wife and widow, Rufina Philby, told the paper that her British husband, whom she married in 1971, eight years after his defection, was disappointed about some of what he saw in the USSR. Fergus announced to some children with whom he was playing that My Daddy wants to stop all wars. [11][pageneeded], In February 1937, Philby travelled to Seville, Spain, then embroiled in a bloody civil war triggered by the coup d'tat of Falangist forces under General Francisco Franco against the democratic government of President Manuel Azaa. [89], In 1940, he began living with Aileen Furse in London. His successor, Boris Bazarov, suffered the same fate two years later during the purges. In February 1947, Philby was appointed head of British intelligence for Turkey, and posted to Istanbul with his second wife, Aileen, and their family. Philby suffered only a minor head wound. Philby was a 19-year-old art student when his father was exposed in 1963 as a traitor. Director Susan Johnson Writers Kara Holden (screenplay by) Caren Lissner (based on the novel by) Stars Bel Powley Nathan Lane Scott Keiji Takeda See production, box office & company info Watch on Netflix But unlike his notorious father, who was hailed a hero in the Soviet Union and buried with full honours, Philby jnr led a low-profile life, and ran his own successful joinery business from a workshop near King's Cross in north London. In early May 1951, Burgess got three speeding tickets in a single daythen pleaded diplomatic immunity, causing an official complaint to be made to the British Ambassador. But, after a silence of nearly five years, here was the first actual sighting and confirmation that the runaways were alive. Born in British India, Philby was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. [47], Burgess, who had been given a post as Second Secretary at the British Embassy, took up residence in the Philby family home and rapidly set about causing offence to all and sundry. He had the policy of never confessinga document in his own handwriting was dismissed as a forgery. Elliott confronted him, saying, "I once looked up to you, Kim. 1951Tips off fellow Cambridge Spy Donald Maclean that a warrant has been issued for his arrest. [83] Philby claimed publicly in January 1988 that he did not regret his decisions and that he missed nothing about England except some friends, Colman's mustard and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. On their first night in Moscow, an elated Burgess and Maclean had dined in style on a great hotel balcony on the first floor overlooking the Kremlin and got drunk on vodka. The difference between the two concepts is important, as the information position of the two categories is rather different. The KGB would stamp the documents "top secret" and begin their circulation. Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 The NKVD complained to Cecil Barclay, the SIS representative in Moscow, that information had been withheld.
They lived together for three years, until a younger woman caught the philandering Philbys eye. He also delivered clothes and money to refugees. His own comment was "I do not say that people were happy under the regime but the CIA underestimated the degree of control that the Authorities had over the country. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Kim Philby in Russia in 1968, five years after defecting. There was nothing more [he] could do. Philby, though, began seeing Melinda on the side, confessing as much to his wife and saying that he was just trying to make [Melindas] life happier as she had been miserable for the last 15 years. In a way hes always just been my father. Harry George Philby (Q96086099) No description defined edit Statements instance of human 0 references sex or gender male 1 reference given name Harry 0 references date of birth 1950 1 reference father Kim Philby 1 reference mother Aileen Amanda Furse 1 reference sibling Dudley Thomas Philby 1 reference John David Philby 1 reference His office oversaw a large amount of urgent and top-secret communications between the United States and London. [92] Melinda left Maclean and briefly lived with Philby in Moscow. Maclean bequeathed Blake his library of books, including Trollope, Macaulay's History of England, Morley's Life of Gladstone, and the Macmillan and Eden memoirs. 14:46 GMT 17 Apr 2018, For 15 years, British diplomat Donald Maclean was passing state secrets to his KGB masters. Then she drove off with the children. [5] He also began working for both the Soviet and British intelligence, which usually consisted of posting letters in a crude code to a fictitious girlfriend, Mlle Dupont in Paris, for the Russians. Donald Maclean, although arrogant and someone who liked a drink too, was regarded as more convivial. To order a copy for 15, visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. Turkish intelligence took them to a border crossing into Georgia but soon afterwards shots were heard. Although she would be left pitied, even censured, and alone in a country in which she had spent barely one-tenth of her life, it might be better that he should be free to live a new life in Moscow than spend a decade behind bars. Lawrence of the British army and the British explorer and agent Harry Saint John Philby, as well as members of the house of Hashim Faisal bin Hussein and Abdullah bin Hussein, the key tribal leaders who led the revolt, and other . Philby had repeated his claim that there were no such agents. burial place . He and his sister Josephine were flown to Moscow by the Russians for his father's funeral in 1988. 4 Comments. Change). Two years later, a Sunday Times correspondent was in Moscow and about to pack his bags after an unsuccessful attempt to interview the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, when, out of the blue, he was invited to a room in his hotel. He was 65. One of five siblings, he was born under a kitchen table during an air raid on London in World War II. She emphasised the strength and goodness of their fathers moral and political beliefs as a committed communist who wanted peaceful co-existence between East and West. Philby found that the award proved helpful in obtaining access to fascist circles: "Before then," he later wrote, "there had been a lot of criticism of British journalists from Franco officers who seemed to think that the British in general must be a lot of Communists because so many were fighting with the International Brigades. I replied 100, which I hoped would last me about a year in Vienna. Life is good here in every way.. But such treatment did not last and they were quickly dispatched to the closed city of Kuybyshev, 600 miles east of Moscow far away, they were told, from British assassination squads. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. In late summer 1943, the SIS provided the GRU an official report on the activities of German agents in Bulgaria and Romania, soon to be liberated by the Soviet Union. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Known as Kim to his friends, Philby secretly defected to the USSR from his home in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1963. Death. [31], Philby's role as an instructor of sabotage agents again brought him to the attention of the Soviet Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU). Years later, Philby snr told his son that Burgess had kept his standard-issue KGB revolver and camera hidden under the boy's bed. J. Edgar Hoover complained that Burgess used British Embassy automobiles to avoid arrest when he cruised Washington in pursuit of homosexual encounters. Philby was a 19-year-old art student when his father was exposed in 1963 as a traitor. Solomon introduced Philby to the woman who would become Philby's second wife, Aileen Furse. [14] Philby later recalled: Lizzy came home one evening and told me that she had arranged for me to meet a "man of decisive importance". While working in Section Five, Philby had become acquainted with James Jesus Angleton, a young American counter-intelligence officer working in liaison with SIS in London. Philby worked at first as a freelance journalist; from May 1937, he served as a first-hand correspondent for The Times, reporting from the headquarters of the pro-Franco forces. There, a porter recalled taking their luggage to a waiting car with Salzburg number plates which drove off towards Vienna. 894646. His friend Malcolm Muggeridge regarded Philby as ''a real-life James Bond''. Their first three children, Josephine, John and Tommy Philby, were born between 1941 and 1944. [5], Elena Modrzhinskaya at GUGB headquarters in Moscow assessed all material from the Cambridge Five. But in Russia he is still admired as a hero. , updated Some could never quite come to terms that he was a traitor. At the same time, Burgess was trying to get her into MI6. In the same interview, she confirmed that Philby was a heavy drinker when they first met, but later became sober. [34], During 194243, Philby's responsibilities were then expanded to include North Africa and Italy, and he was made the deputy head of Section Five under Major Felix Cowgill, an army officer seconded to SIS. [citation needed], The SIS planned to interrogate Maclean on 28 May 1951. When they had not returned on the Sunday night, her mother was frantic. [40], A month later Igor Gouzenko, a cipher clerk in Ottawa, took political asylum in Canada and gave the Royal Canadian Mounted Police names of agents operating within the British Empire that were known to him. He joined (1917) the British foreign service, was sent on a special mission to Arabia, and became the first European to visit the southern provinces of the Nejd. by Ian Allen [54][61] There, his journalism served as cover for renewed work for MI6. Years after the war, Sir Hardy Amies, who had served as an intelligence officer during the war, recalled that Philby was in his mess and on being asked what the infamous spy was like, Hardy quipped, "He was always trying to get information out of memost significantly the name of my tailor". He said "It was a very dirty storybut after all our work does imply getting dirty hands from time to time but we do it for a cause that is not dirty in any way". Little Donald said perhaps he had gone to India because that would be a good place to hide.. He was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1934. "[23], Philby, "employed in a Department of the Foreign Office", was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1946.[41]. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. The "affair of the missing diplomats," as it was referred to before Burgess and Maclean surfaced in Moscow,[54] attracted a great deal of public attention, and Burgess's disappearance, which identified him as complicit in Maclean's espionage, deeply compromised Philby's position. You can give that to the International Organisation for Aid for Revolutionaries. [85], Philby found work in the early 1970s in the KGB's Active Measures Department churning out fabricated documents. She was an object of both pity and fascination, and to get away from it all, she moved from their house on the Kent-Surrey border to Switzerland, with her mother. Theirs had always been a stormy marriage, punctuated by bad behaviour on both sides and terrible rows. [17], In London, Philby began a career as a journalist. Philby confirmed that he had worked for the KGB and that "his purpose in life was to destroy imperialism".[80]. He trained Albanian commandossome of whom were former Nazi collaboratorsin Libya or Malta. He became a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship, an organization aiming at rebuilding and supporting a friendly relationship between Germany and the United Kingdom. JOHN Philby, the eldest son of Soviet spy Kim Philby, who was a double agent and the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s, has died in England. [11][pageneeded]. Volkov's defection had been discussed with the British Embassy in Ankara on telephones which turned out to have been tapped by Soviet intelligence. [45] A leading figure within the CIA was Philby's wary former colleague, James Jesus Angleton, with whom he once again found himself working closely. [63] From 1960, Philby's formerly marginal work as a journalist became more substantial and he frequently travelled throughout the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Yemen. She lived separately from Philby, settling with their children in Crowborough while he lived first in London and later in Beirut. In July 1951, he resigned from MI6, preempting his all-but-inevitable dismissal.[55]. On 25 October 1955, following revelations in The New York Times, Labour MP Marcus Lipton used parliamentary privilege to ask Prime Minister Anthony Eden if he was determined "to cover up at all costs the dubious third man activities of Mr Harold Philby"[57] This was reported in the British press, leading Philby to threaten legal action against Lipton if he repeated his accusations outside Parliament. [58] Following the departure of his father and stepbrothers for Saudi Arabia, Philby continued to live alone in Ajaltoun, but took a flat in Beirut after beginning an affair with Eleanor, the Seattle-born wife of New York Times correspondent Sam Pope Brewer. He said that there was no discipline there; he made friends with the archivist, which enabled him for years to take secret documents home, many unrelated to his own work, and bring them back the next day; his handler took and photographed them overnight. Roland Philipps For The Daily Mail
[82] Philby continued to read The Times, which was not generally available in the USSR, listened to the BBC World Service, and was an avid follower of cricket. During the Phoney War from September 1939 until the Dunkirk evacuation, Philby worked as The Times' first-hand correspondent with the British Expeditionary Force headquarters. [47] His dissolution had a troubling effect on Philby; the morning after a particularly disastrous and drunken party, a guest returning to collect his car heard voices upstairs and found "Kim and Guy in the bedroom drinking champagne. [22][23], Alexander Orlov (born Lev Feldbin; code-name Swede), Philby's controller in Madrid, who had once met him in Perpignan, France, also defected. (LogOut/ Born in 1946, Dudley Tommy Philby is the third of Kims five children with his second of four wives, Aileen Furse Philby. I discovered much later from a photograph in MI5 files that the name he went by was Arnold Deutsch. 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