It is possible that it was a Viennese-born friend of Friedmann's in London, Edith Tudor Hart herself, at this time, a Soviet agent who first approached Philby about the possibility of working for Soviet intelligence. [3], On the evening of 23 January 1963, Philby vanished from Beirut, failing to meet his wife for a dinner party at the home of Glencairn Balfour Paul, First Secretary at the British Embassy. In 1940 he began working for the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). It is also true, she said, that he tried to kill himself at one point. 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. Melinda returned to Donald, but two years later moved to her own apartment. burial place . Kim Philby, the most successful of the Cambridge spies, tried to drink himself to death in Moscow because he was disillusioned with communism and tortured by his own failings, his last wife has said in an interview. He was very good when he was around. Sister of Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby; Diana Mary Bridger Philby and Helena Verna Philby. However, she denies that Philby ever regretted defecting to the Soviet Union, adding that he never talked of going home to Britain. [4][5], Nicknamed "Kim" after the boy-spy in Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim,[3] Philby attended Aldro preparatory school, an all-boys school located in Shackleford near Godalming in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. Philby had been briefed on the situation shortly before reaching Washington in 1949; it was clear to Philby that the agent was Donald Maclean, who worked in the British Embassy at the time and whose wife, Melinda, lived in New York. But MI6 found it hard to believe that Philby could be a Soviet agent. "[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]. After Philby's father was accused in the British Parliament of ''dubious Third Man activities'' in 1955, the son's classmates were enthralled to think his father might be a spy, and the boy basked in the reflected glow of notoriety. [37], In February 1934, Philby married Litzi Friedmann, an Austrian Jewish communist whom he had met in Vienna. Philby admired the strength of her political convictions and later recalled that at their first meeting: A frank and direct person, Litzi came out and asked me how much money I had. Krivitsky claimed that two Soviet intelligence agents had penetrated the Foreign Office and that a third Soviet intelligence agent had worked as a journalist for a British newspaper during the civil war in Spain. "[69] Prompted by Elliott's accusations, Philby confirmed the charges of espionage and described his intelligence activities on behalf of the Soviets. "He once even said that it was the easiest way to bring life to an end. Harry St John Philby on his 1917 trek across the Arabian Peninsula, which he recorded in his 1922 book 'Heart of Arabia'. She told a BBC documentary: He was just dad. Eleanor found Melinda amusing but nervous and highly strung and yearning for the luxuries of Western capitalism. As he states in his autobiography, he . Wages and incomes of the population. Offer valid until May 1, 2018. "Once, a big group of us were on a trip on the Volga: Kim and I and, of course, his KGB escort, and the escort's daughter. She asked, "Could the SIS really be such fools they failed to notice suitcase-loads of papers leaving the office? Philby was only an agent of one service, the KGB. Speaking on the anniversary of his late fathers defection, he described him as a very kind man and a very good father, who had his belief [in] communism [and] carried it out. "But he never got aggressive, and just went to bed. Given all that Melinda had gone through, the pity she had had to accept and the dissembling she had had to practise, that first meeting overseen by Soviet officials was a strained affair. One of five siblings, he was born under a kitchen table during an air raid on London in World War II. Working from genuine unclassified and public CIA or US State Department documents, Philby inserted "sinister" paragraphs regarding US plans. Born in British India, Philby was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Melinda, it turned out, had driven to Lausanne, where tickets were waiting and luggage had been left in a station locker. Melinda translated Russian stories into English for the weekly English paper, Moscow News. The minister told the House of Commons, "I have no reason to conclude that Mr. Philby has at any time betrayed the interests of his country, or to identify him with the so-called 'Third Man', if indeed there was one. [17], In London, Philby began a career as a journalist. 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One historian said his work for the Soviets was ''beyond price''. [5], Kim Philby, memorandum in Security Service Archives (1963). Shortly afterward, Philby was moved to the job as chief SIS representative in Washington, D.C., with his family. With his brilliant mind and First from Cambridge, Maclean could bask in being the superior intellect to an under-educated, attractive woman who was both affectionate and popular, where he was withdrawn, giving nothing of himself away. In November 1964, after a visit to the United States, she returned, intending to settle permanently. [35] In early 1944, as it became clear that the Soviet Union was likely to once more prove a significant adversary to Britain, SIS re-activated Section Nine, which dealt with anti-communist efforts. [39][5], The intervention of Philby in the affair and the subsequent capture of Volkov by the Soviets might have seriously compromised Philby's position. By
[56] Lacking access to material of value and out of touch with Soviet intelligence, he all but ceased to operate as a Soviet agent. Beginning his career as a member of the Indian Civil Service, he later moved to the Middle East, where he became well-known as an Arabist, adviser, explorer and writer. She noted that they produced an extraordinary wealth of information on German war plans but next to nothing on the repeated question of British penetration of Soviet intelligence in either London or Moscow. Will former US government informant face terror charges inIndia. After all, they won the war.'". The news that Philby, a former MI6 officer, had been spying for the Russians since 1933 sounded an alarm in Whitehall. Their first three children, Josephine, John and Tommy Philby, were born between 1941 and 1944. Please try again later. [72][pageneeded], It was not until 1 July 1963 that Philby's flight to Moscow was officially confirmed. In contrast to Blake, Philby and Burgess and to a less extent Maclean suffered from nostalgia for Britain. My God, how I despise you now. [84] Despite reports to the contrary, Philby's wife claimed in a 1997 interview that the idea of Philby becoming depressed and destitute in Moscow was "a myth". Tagged with Cold War, defectors, double agents, Dudley Thomas Philby, H.A.R. [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. The two men said very little and the interview lasted barely five minutes. "[59] Following this, Philby gave a press conference in whichcalmly, confidently, and without the stammer he had struggled with since childhoodhe reiterated his innocence, declaring, "I have never been a communist. Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby, fdd 1 januari 1912 i Ambala, Provinsen Punjab, Brittiska Indien, dd 11 maj 1988 i Moskva, Sovjetunionen, var en brittisk stor spion och dubbelagent samt verste inom KGB . Of the five, Philby is believed to have been most successful in providing secret information to the Soviets.[2]. Melinda put the bravest of faces on her situation when she wrote to her still grief-stricken mother that she understood the suffering she had caused. In September 1949, the Philbys arrived in the United States. This statement was underlined twice in red and marked with two question marks, clearly indicating their confusion and questioning of this, by disbelieving staff at Moscow Central in the Lubyanka, according to Genrikh Borovik, who saw the telegrams much later in the KGB archives. While working as a senior member of British intelligence, he spied on behalf of the Soviet NKVD and KGB from the early 1930s until his defection. 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. The NKVD received the same report from Richard Sorge but with an extra paragraph claiming that Hitler might seek a separate peace with the Soviet Union. Born in Ambala, Punjab, British India, Harold Adrian Russell Philby was the son of Dora Johnston and St John Philby, an author, Arabist and explorer. And here he was struck by disappointment, brought to tears. Matthew Tomkinson / Heart of Arabia Expedition. Pierre-Charles Path est un journaliste franais n le 9 juillet 1910 Boulogne-sur-Mer et mort le 14 novembre 1997 1 Villejuif. he was an agent of two services, namely MI5 and the Abwehr. In July 1951, he resigned from MI6, preempting his all-but-inevitable dismissal.[55]. 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. [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. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied oriental languages . In fact, Philby and Maclean's fellow spy, Burgess, were intimate friends; tipped off by Philby, who organised their defection, they fled to Moscow. [24], In 1940, on the recommendation of Burgess, Philby joined MI6's Section D, a secret organisation charged with investigating how enemies might be attacked through non-military means. When Jane Archer (who had interviewed Krivitsky) was appointed to Philby's section he moved her off investigatory work in case she became aware of his past. The boys told a child they met on a beach that the photos he had taken could not be forwarded to them as we are going away and we dont know where we are going. I knew what I wanted to know and that was the end of the affair. During his career as an intelligence officer, he passed large amounts of intelligence to the Soviet Union, including a plot to subvert the communist regime of Albania. 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. [6] Following in the footsteps of his father, Philby continued to Westminster School, which he left in 1928 at the age of 16. A plaque in his honour was. Kim Philby drank while Guy Burgess, who was gay, missed his friends in London, including Anthony Blunt whose spying activities, though known to the government, were kept under wraps until they were exposed much later, in 1979. Halfway there, they switched cars and drove to a small airport in the Soviet zone of Austria. 14:46 GMT 17 Apr 2018, For 15 years, British diplomat Donald Maclean was passing state secrets to his KGB masters. He and Pukhova married in 1971, when he was 59 and she was 38. He was happy in Moscow and fulfilled by his work. When Melinda and the children joined him, they moved into a small apartment and the children were put into the local Soviet schools. They remained friends for many years following their separation and divorced only in 1946, just following the end of World War II. The next day she notified the British Consul in Geneva. I replied 100, which I hoped would last me about a year in Vienna. [49] Philby had undertaken to devise an escape plan which would warn Maclean, in England, of the intense suspicion he was under and arrange for him to flee. [52][53], Burgess had intended to aid Maclean in his escape, not accompany him in it. The first was ignored as a provocation, but the second, when this was confirmed by the Russo-German journalist and spy in Tokyo, Richard Sorge, contributed to Stalin's decision to begin transporting troops from the Far East in time for the counteroffensive around Moscow. You should have seen his face.". "[20], In 1938, Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg), a former GRU officer in Paris who had defected to France the previous year, travelled to the United States and published an account of his time in "Stalin's secret service". The situation in Washington was tense. Harry Montague Philby was born in month 1857, at birth place, to Henry Adams Philby and Mary Philby (born Bridger). He had got afraid that I would leave, and hidden the boot.". (LogOut/ A more serious threat to Philby's position had come to light. But Maclean sobered up and went cold turkey in a detoxification clinic. I hope you've enough decency left to understand why. [71] However, others maintain that he escaped through Syria, overland to Soviet Armenia and thence to Russia. Garbo/Pujol of WW II fame was a double agent, i.e. (LogOut/ Clear rating. In 1955, a botched investigation formally cleared him of spying for the Soviets but, shortly before being reinterviewed by British intelligence in 1963, Philby snr defected to Moscow. It was ten years before he was given a minor role in the training of KGB recruits. [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. Lipton later withdrew his comments. [32] At this time, the German Abwehr was active in Spain, particularly around the British naval base of Gibraltar, which its agents hoped to watch with many detection stations to track Allied supply ships in the Western Mediterranean. [11][pageneeded], Both the British and the Soviets were interested in analyzing the combat performance of the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes and Panzer I and Panzer II tanks deployed with Falangist forces in Spain. Then, with no more information to be had, the story of the Macleans went dead. But for intelligence history aficionados it marked the 50th anniversary of the escape to Moscow of notorious double spy Harold Adrian Russell Philby. Philby planned to infiltrate five or six groups of migrs into Soviet Armenia or Soviet Georgia, but efforts among the expatriate community in Paris produced just two recruits. But though his love affair with the cause never wavered, his love affair with Melinda did. No connection with Philby was made at the time, and Krivitsky was found shot in a Washington hotel room the following year. Interrogated repeatedly regarding his intelligence work and his connection with Burgess, he continued to deny that he had acted as a Soviet agent. 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. To order a copy for 15, visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. They travelled together in Spain through August 1939. [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. [19] Maly was one of the Soviet Union's most powerful and influential illegal controllers and recruiters. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. 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