The cambridge five biography

The transcripts reveal that Philby made a fleeting but significant admission, that he had passed on information to the Russians about Konstantin Volkov. A Soviet intelligence officer stationed in Turkey, Volkov had privately offered to defect to the UK — before he and his wife were taken by Soviet agents and executed in the Lubyanka in Moscow.

Although Blunt had been given an assurance that no action would be taken against him if he now told the truth, Martin was left with the impression that Blunt was still withholding certain information. He held that position untiland remained in an advisory capacity to the Royal Collection until As such, Blunt remained at the heart of the establishment for over 30 years.

He goes on to talk about his first encounters with Maclean, Burgess and Philby, his work on decrypted messages at Bletchley Park and his career path in general. Very little material has been released about Cairncross before — 22 files concerning him are now made available in this release as well as 22 files on Blunt and 21 files on Philby.

He was suspected of working as an agent for the Russian Intelligence Service and was prosecuted but found not guilty. Following up on information from a source, MI5 thought that he may have been approached by the Russian Intelligence Service. MI5 interviewed Bogarde in and established that there was no cause for suspicion. He was knighted in Inthe British government discovered he was a spy but offered him immunity in return for information.

Inthe story got out and Blunt was stripped of his knighthood. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled.

The cambridge five biography

Philby worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. Because Philby had access to this top-secret information, the Soviets stayed one step ahead of any possible code-breaking or knowledge of spy networks, which allowed suspected spies to defect before they were caught. This was the case for Maclean, who was able to defect because Philby sent Burgess to warn him.

After the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean, suspicion turned to Philby and after enough evidence against him was gathered, an investigation into Philby was launched in After weeks of interrogation, nothing incriminating was found but he was nonetheless discharged from his role as head of Section IX. InPhilby was finally unmasked by the testimony of Soviets who had defected to the West.

Philby defected to Moscow where he lived until his death. Anthony Blunt was a respected, leading art historian before and after the war. He was knighted in for his accomplishments in the role. After the war, inhe became director of the prestigious art college, the Courtland Institute of Art. From this position, he passed on secret information regarding British code-breaking intelligence against the Germans to the Soviets.

His intelligence work mostly ceased with the culmination of the war, but he helped with the defection of Burgess and Maclean while pretending to help MI5 investigate Burgess. He was subsequently questioned by MI5 in and confessed. He avoided prosecution by agreeing to share everything he knew. He kept his knighthood status until he was publically outed as a spy in by PM Margaret Thatcher and consequently stripped of his knighthood.

He was known as a flamboyant, character and heavy drinker, yet a supremely gifted networker. To the great shock of many who knew him, he was also a master spy and the de facto leader of the Cambridge spy ring. Burgess fled to Moscow with Donald Mclean in Exploiting his position within the Foreign Office Maclean began passing sensitive documents to the Soviets via a Canadian intermediary, Kitty Harris.

Maclean ascended through the diplomatic ranks to hold high-ranking British Embassy posts in Paris, Cairo, and Washington. In the latter post, he gained access to pivotal information on atomic energy collaboration between the UK, United States, and Canadawhich he diligently sent to Moscow. He was eventually warned by Kim Philby that he had been detected and fled to Russia with Guy Burgess in Sir Anthony Blunt was born in Bournemouth, England.

His early years included the cambridge five biography in Paris with his family before he was educated at Marlborough College. He later earned a scholarship to study Mathematics and later modern languages at Trinity College Cambridge.