And how had the mole managed to infiltrate our system? Where in Bexleyheath did Melita Norwood live? We sent soldiers there to die against Hitler. But what Melita exactly did is up for debate. Monday, 13 September, 1999, 17:35 GMT 18:35 UK, The BBC's Jon Silverman: "At the outbreak of war she was more highly valued than Kim Philby", Nigel West, Intelligence Expert: "Such individuals should be pursued", Journalist David Rose: "The people that she lives among have not a clue as to her past", ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Theodore Rothstein was one of the people in their group. She says she was working for the ideology not the financial reward. 00:34 GMT 19 Jul 2014 Melita Norwood was a die-hard communist and unapologetic about her spying. The girl who had become bored with university life at Southampton after only a year was soon being promoted from clerk to secretary. She began spying for the Soviet Union four years after Josef Stalin took power, working under the code name "Hola". 2023 Getty Images. Melita Stedman Norwood (ne Sirnis) (25 March 1912 - 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant and KGB intelligence source who, for a period of about 40 years following her recruitment in 1937, supplied the KGB (and its predecessor agencies) with state secrets from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. Sitting in front of Max, her boss, she simply suggests using a centrifuge as causally as you would suggest having a cup of tea before turning back to her notes. One resident, Robert Leck, 78, a former bomb disposal unit RAF corporal, recalls Lette doing the shopping at the Co-op for other elderly neighbours, visiting anyone she thought might be lonely or unwell. Melita Norwood was a woman in her eighties who had been a dutiful wife and mother, but she was also Russia's most effective spy - going undetected for nearly 40 years. Norwood never revealed to anyone what she was up to, not even to her Left-leaning husband Hilary, a maths teacher. Her father had fled from Russia to, Key to this was research into metallurgy and this is exactly what Melita Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job. Alma mater. The newspaper will begin on Monday to serialize a book published in Britain as ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The K.G.B. The film depicts her as a woman who, while clearly out of her depth, is really the person responsible for seeing nuclear bombs as a deterrent rather than a weapon. Standing in her suburban front garden in 87-year-old pensioner Melita Norwood read from a crisp sheet of paper, intently looking down the lens of a camera as she confessed to being a top secret spy and betraying her country. She was lovely, a pure lady, says Sheila Howell, who was a neighbour for more than 20 years. These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. Her confession that sunny Saturday came as a surprise to everyone but none more than her daughter, Anita, a school lab technician. Anita (l. 1943) Pekerjaan. In 1967, she recruited a British civil servant 'Hunt' who passed on secrets about arms sales for nearly 15 years. Her KGB file gave her a glowing review calling her "committed, reliable and disciplined agent, striving to be of the utmost assistance. Anak-anak. If you want to learn more about this . Sat 2 Jul 2005 21.01 EDT. Three years after being exposed, Lette sold the semi in Bexleyheath and moved to be near her daughter, renting a flat in the sheltered housing complex. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Despite her odd hobby no one really thought much of it but if they had perhaps her past wouldn't have come as so much of a shock as reporters clambered for a shot of her on her drive. She declined it her spying was, after all, a matter of principle. But she always felt she did the right thing. She thought what she was doing was for the benefit of the entire world. This week her daughter defended her mums decision to spy for the Soviets from 1934 to 1972. The KGB awarded her the prestigious military honour the Order of the Red Banner. It was a complete shock at the time, says Anita, now 71. Though Norwoods employers were suspicious of her ties to the Communist Party, over decades of work they never pinpointed her as a mole. Anita Ferguson, a school laboratory technician from Wombourne, Staffordshire, speaks to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother Melita Norwood spied for the Russians for 40 years. Melita turned down all the offers from newspapers, preferring to tell her story - for free - to her friend David Burke. She did say she spied, but what? Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. Melita Norwood, codenamed Hola, was a prized spy in Moscow Passed on Britain's top nuclear secrets over a period of 35 years Her name emerged in the Mitrokhin Archive nine years after she died. Is it time Harry & Meghan accept Clarkson's apology and move on? "I thought perhaps what I had access to might be useful in helping Russia to keep abreast of Britain, America and Germany. Well, she was partly aided by the boys club atmosphere of MI5, the British Security Service. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Hilary Norwood In the film, Norwood's character, named Joan, is a Cambridge physics graduate who begins to work as a secretary for the team working on the atomic bomb for the British. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and passed them to Moscow. Rose, David. Known as ''Letti'' to her friends, she was identified in K.G.B. July 21, 2020 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review, Your email address will not be published. She married chemistry teacher Hilary Norwood (formerly named Nussbaum), also a Communist, in 1935, and two years later they bought the house on Garden Avenue where she would live for the next 65 years. Asked if she had ever been frightened of being caught, she said, ''I suppose so, but I can't remember pondering it.''. Following in her fathers footsteps, Norwood joined the Communist Party. Widowed, Melita moved to Wombourne to be close to her daughter. Mon 27 Jun 2005 20.03 EDT. But the unremarkable but highly intelligent office worker would pass those secrets to Moscow via clandestine meetings with Russian agents. The Russians had been struggling to find a solution to an issue they were having with creating the atomic bomb when Norwood found the answer. Then in 1932, Norwood, now 20, began work in the clerical department of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (BN-FMRA). It also offered her a pension of 20 a month. Red Joan is released in cinemas on April 19, 2019. "I did what I did, not to make money, but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and a health service.". "I do not consider myself a spy," she told reporters. This innocuous-sounding association was actually part of a secret nuclear weapons research project with the U.S. called Tube Alloy. When no one was looking, Norwood would sneak into her boss office, open his safe and take pictures of the secret documents inside. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Union's longest-serving British spy. She connects with her former Communist lover Leo who encourages her to hand over secrets to the Russians. five years later, saying only, ''Somebody said that my work might be an interesting source of material.'' Shes a very good person, very strong and totally unmaterialistic.. Still, she refuses to discuss the actual passing over of documents and refuses to say who wooed her to the KGB. . And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. When she was finally unmasked, confessing in her garden, the public called for her to be prosecuted but Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled that dragging such an old woman into court would be inappropriate. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. She removed items from her boss' safe, photographing details and sending them on to the Soviets, as is seen in the film. Norwood was the most important British female agent in the whole of the KGB's history as well as the longest-serving of all the Soviet spies in Britain. When everything she had done came out in the newspapers her neighbours were stunned. Norwood was a long-time member of the Communist Party who supported the Soviet Unions attempt to bring communism to Eastern Europe and feared a world in which the United States and Western Europe held unchallenged nuclear power. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. One was in his office and the other at his London home. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. The reality is that Norwood was devoted to her husband, who she nursed through liver cancer up to his death in 1986. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. Image of spy Melita Norwood opening Norwood Labs at Greenwich University in 1993. Posted on January 17, 2022 | by . Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. She ended her days in a cosy, third-floor rented flat in a sheltered housing complex. She told the newspaper that ''in the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same thing again.''. Her consequent contribution of atomic intelligence to the Soviet Union was incalculable, certainly big enough for the Russians to declare that she had made a valuable contribution to the development of work in this field. She was an emotional Communist and quite naive. Melita Stedman Norwood ( ne Sirnis; 25 Maret 1912 - 2 Juni 2005) adalah seorang pegawai negeri Inggris dan sumber intelijensi KGB. / Although her father died when she was six, the family still held Left-wing views which the bright child absorbed from an early age. The Soviet Union's bomb coincided with the onset of The Cold War, and threatened humankind with extinction. Reuters. The film portrays Norwood as a doddering old woman that when unmasked struggles to understand what she did wrong and what is happening to her. Melita Norwood / Lived In Woodbridge VA, Cranberry Township PA, Mentor OH, Aurora IL. They were a middle-aged professional couple with a fixed mortgage, presumably beyond reproach. 87years (December 9, 1934) Only in 1965 did MI5 get wise to the risk she posed. Working so close to highly classified research, Lette had to go through a security vetting. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images) Embed Save PURCHASE A LICENSE Indeed, so trusted was Lette that she had access to Baileys two safes. Widowed for 13 years, she was a keen gardener - surrounded by the fruits of her labour as she gave her statement - and was seen as bit of a dotty old woman by her neighbours. Anita Ferguson, the daughter of Melita Norwood, "has spoken of her distress at discovering the double life led by her mother throughout her childhood." Rose, David. Anita Ferguson, the daughter of Melita Norwood, "has spoken of her distress at discovering the double life led by her mother throughout her childhood." His occupation was Yes. If Melita Norwood had died just a few years ago, the only obituary would have been in her local paper, recalling the one eccentricity of a Bexleyheath octogenarian: for . handlers, she said, she would blame it on traffic tie-ups -- an excuse he accepted though he knew it to be sham. Now her double life has inspired the film Red Joan, with Dame Judi Dench co-starring in the title role. It was middle country, middle class, middle management and middlebrow. Explaining her motive, Mrs. Norwood said, ''I thought perhaps what I had access to might be useful in helping Russia to keep abreast of Britain, America and Germany.'' 's foreign intelligence section, who defected to the British in 1992. She told me she would have been prepared to be tried as a war criminal and would have accepted a prison sentence.. Dame Judy Dench stars as the KGB's longest serving British spy in 'Red Joan', Melita Norwood reads a statement in her garden, which she had lovingly tended, Judi Dench plays an older Joan Stanley, who is based on Norwood, Melita Norwood aged 87 when she faced the cameras, Sophie Cookson plays Joan Stanley, who is based on Norwood, The former British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association building in central London, Norwood read her statement, surrounded by the garden that she loved so much. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. She'd leave them somewhere to be picked up or handed them over at a meet-up. In 2013, author Jennie Rooney published a novel, Red Joan, loosely based on Norwoods life. Includes Address (23) Phone (7) Email (7) See Results. '', At Dillons Newsagents, Peter Dodd, the assistant manager, said he had been surprised years ago when he first saw her orders for Communist publications. Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos As she retreated back into her house, she murmured, ''No, no, no,'' to shouted questions asking whether she regretted her actions. Melita Norwood death. The couple's daughter, Anita Ferguson, 56, a biologist living in Staffordshire, said she learned of her mother's activity from the newspaper report on Saturday. Melita Stedman Norwood (ne Sirnis; 25 March 1912 - 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant, Communist Party of Great Britain member and KGB spy.. Born to a British mother and Latvian father, Norwood is most famous for supplying the Soviet Union with state secrets concerning the development of atomic weapons from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, where she . Judi Dench says later as a young woman she just went along with it. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Melita Stedman Norwood (ne Sirnis; 25 March 1912 - 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant, Communist Party of Great Britain member and KGB spy. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! This afternoon she strolled in her garden at the request of photographers but refused to answer any questions. Your email address will not be published. She was, in many ways, the perfect spy, living during most of her long years of treason in a pebble-dash semi in Bexleyheath, South-East London, with her maths and chemistry teacher husband Hilary, growing fresh vegetables in her back garden allotment and bringing up their daughter Anita. But, her activities never made her rich, and she continued to live in the rather basic London house she bought with her husband in the 1950s. As a highly trusted employee, sensitive documents crossed her desk each day. It's quite a shock to be told that the sweet old lady round the corner has been a K.G.B. Burke, who later wrote The Spy Who Came In From the Co-op: Melita Norwood and the Ending of Cold War Espionage, noted that Norwood kept repeating I thought Id got away with it. Yet as Burke wrote, she actually did get away with it: even after her outing, the government still declined to prosecute her. She retired in 1972, and remained in her Bexleyheath home until her death in 2005. I just wanted Russia to be on equal footing with the West, she told the media crowding at her front door in 1999 after being publicly exposed, before politely closing it. ''I thought, 'Who is this nutter?' In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. One said to the Sunday Mercury: "We all knew where her politics lay. Her father had fled from Russia to England and found a home here, but this meant little to Norwood. This was a woman who was seen pottering around tending to her vegetables and flowers. Her father died when she was six, but her mother was active in leftist causes, instilling in her children strong sentiments against all war and sympathy for countries like Germany that the family viewed as victims of warfare. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. Members of her family didnt know what was going on at all. Melita Norwood Until her death in 2005 . Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. Also known as Anita L Goertz, A L Ferguson. Today brings a fresh reminder of a national disgrace, the failure to prosecute Melita Norwood for treason. ''When I first saw all the details, I just felt complete disbelief,'' she said. Today's newspapers predicted that the excerpts from Professor Andrew's book and an accompanying BBC documentary called ''The Spying Game'' would unmask up to a dozen more Britons who worked for Soviet intelligence, including a former Scotland Yard officer and a person described tantalizingly by the author as ''a prominent public figure who is now dead.''. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. In 2000, a parliamentary committee that oversaw intelligence agencies criticised the government for failing to prosecute Norwood. In 1999, an 87-year-old British woman held a press conference in front of her home to announce that for nearly four decades, shed worked as a spy for the Soviet Union. Find the perfect melita norwood stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Who is Melitta Norwood? When the spy was eventually unmasked half a century later in 1999, the identity came as a huge shock. Selama sekitar 40 tahun sejak ia direkrut pada 1937, ia memberikan rahasia- rahasia negara kepada KGB (dan . Anita Ferguson, a school laboratory technician from Wombourne, Staffordshire, speaks to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother. Apart from passing on nuclear secrets, Norwood recruited at least one person to be a KGB spy. <br>Who would have thought she was a spy? . I certainly didnt.. He too was a member of the Communist Party. Described as the most important female agent ever recruited by the USSR, she was considered more valuable than infamous British Reds Kim Philby or Guy Burgess. But a male superior dismissed her tip because he didnt think women could be good spies (in 1940, he fired Maund for accusing him of incompetence). Also known as Anita A James, Ferguson Anita. The extent of Norwoods betrayal only became clear in 1999 after Russian defector Vasili Mitrokhin opened up his KGB files to MI5 and British journalists. Born to a British mother and Latvian father, Norwood is most famous for supplying the Soviet Union with state secrets concerning the development of atomic weapons from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, where she . / '', See the article in its original context from. ''I would not have liked to have kept such a secret.''. Over a period of 35 years, she had been a spy for the KGB, passing on Britains nuclear secrets that enabled the Soviet Union to catch up in building the atomic bomb. The great-grandmother of 87 still lives in the same, spartan south London house which she bought with her husband, a maths teacher, 50 years ago. And in April 2019, a film adaptation premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. starring Judi Dench as Joan Stanley, the fictional counterpart to Melita Norwood, the real-life spy. At firs the Security Service insisted her part in everything had been "marginal", it was a huge embarrassment. ''I'm sorry to get you all out like this on a Sunday,'' she told the waiting journalists. Norwood's father died when was six from tuberculosis and the family moved to Southampton. Anita L Ferguson, 52. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research. spy. Melita Norwood, nee Sirnis, was born in 1912, the English daughter of a Latvian father and a British mother, and grew up in unremarkable circumstances in the Home Counties. He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. She is interrogated by two detectives from Scotland Yard, whom she accuses of misunderstanding her life, but gradually concedes that she did provide information to the Soviets. [8] Death [ edit] Dr Burke says: She was a sophisticated spy. When Leo is away, Joan begins to fall for co-worker Max Davis (Stephen Campbell Moore), the man who eventually becomes her husband and Nicks father. Born in 1912 she was brought up with Communists, Socialists and Leninists. She thought he was the best. Melita would drop off her seven-year-old daughter, Anita, at the local primary school. Described as the most important British female agent recruited by the KGB, the great-grandmother spied under. Melita Norwood was the daughter of a Latvian father and English mother, and had a sister and half-brother. Close. Journalism strengthens democracy. I did what I did not to make money but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and a health service, she told the press in front of her home. Dr Burke explains: At one time she was vetted again. 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It seemed that Britain was headed into another of the spy expose frenzies that have occurred periodically with the unmaskings of men like Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross who followed their Communist sympathies into espionage. The spy who came in from the Co-op." Melita Norwood, the last of the atomic spies, hadfinally been run to ground, but at 87 she was deemed too old to prosecute. She was dressed in a wide collared lavender floral print blouse and gray tweed skirt and clutching a handwritten piece of paper with slightly trembling fingers. Secrets of Bletchley Park: How codebreakers paved way for World War 2 victory, Ex-spy killing 'linked to unsolved murder of Brit family in the Alps', Novichok victim Charlie Rowley asks Putin's man 'did you kill my girlfriend? With her bottle-base thick glasses, lank, grey hair tamed by clips and penchant for dowdy cotton blouses, Melita Norwood appears an unlikely KGB Cold War weapon. Straw said: "She had not in practice had authorized access to government secrets after 1949," and her security clearance was revoked in 1951. His occupation was Yes. For Mrs Norwood was no ordinary granny. After that, although she wasnt arrested, she found she was no longer getting access to confidential material.. Unlike those Mata Hari-style seductresses whose treachery is based in the boudoir, Mrs Norwood was a very different kind of agent. what happened to melita norwood. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. Melita Norwood. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and passed them to Moscow. Even after she was publicly exposed in 1999 as having worked for the KGB, neighbours found it very hard to condemn the nice old girl whod been such a good neighbour for decades. "Melita Norwood's relatives, friends and neighbours told [on 11 September 1999] of their shock on learning . The daughter of grandmother Melita Norwood, unmasked as one of Britain's biggest traitors, last night told how the former spy kept details of her treachery secret from her to the very last moment. Norwood was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. She was perusing the archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler. Joan also comes up with the idea of enriching uranium in the film, which is part of the process of making atomic energy. 09:21 GMT 28 Jun 2005 Norwoods secret finally came out in September 1999, when The Times of London began to publish Andrews book serially. 93-year-old spy still keeping war secrets - BBC News Daughter Anita tried to downplay the damage Norwood had done, saying: There are questions about whether it was really useful at all to the Russians. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed. Find family history information in a whole new way Create a free family tree for yourself or for Melita Sirnis and we'll search for valuable new information for you. pink house() 8226 She went to Southampton University for a year and in 1932, soon to become a secret member of Britain's Communist Party, she got her secretarial job at the metals association office in northern London. She's a very good person, very strong and totally unmaterialistic," she told The Daily Mail at the time. This traitor in our midst had handed over nuclear bomb-related documents so highly classified that most of the Cabinet did not know they existed. Her spying career began four years after Joseph Stalin had seized power, long before his atrocities had become known to the outside world. He suspected she had been meeting KGB agents when she arrived back late from work, but did not know the extent of her crimes. Norwood joined Southampton University but dropped out and moved to Germany at the time of the rise of the Nazis. Resides in Fairfax Station, VA. When she was unmasked, she said: I did what I did not to make money, but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and health service. On her retirement in 1972, K.G.B. We cannot guarantee accuracy of data published on this website. Her work continued after the war and there's no question what she handed over was useful to the Soviets. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. appaloosa management short hills; opdl teams looking for players; io nerf paladins; ottawa tribe symbols; loyola chicago sorority recruitment; an unfinished life ending; "And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. Lived In Garland TX, Duncanville TX, Dallas TX, Desoto TX. 1999, 22 April Mr Straw is told that the Attorney General had advised against prosecution as it would be "inappropriate". Like many nonagenarians, Melita Norwood did her best to keep her mind active. She thought he was the best. He founded the Southern Worker And Labour And Socialist Journal in Southampton. "Whatever she may have done, I loved her. That was the anodyne name given to Britain's nuclear weapons reseach program that is sometimes compared to the more famous American project conducted in Los Alamos, N.M. Mrs. Norwood regularly removed files from a safe after hours, copied them and turned them over to Soviet agents in meetings in the leafy southeastern suburbs where she has lived for more than 50 years. Except for one thing she worked at the British NonFerrous Metals Research Association offices in Euston, central London. The couple's daughter, Anita Ferguson, 56, a biologist living in Staffordshire, said she learned of her mother's activity from the newspaper report on Saturday. Her motivations weren't as pure as the film suggests either. Author David Burke, who wrote a book about Melita's extraordinary life, was told by Norwood herself that it was she that approached them not the other way around. In 1949 they detonated their first atomic bomb four years earlier than expected. People in the neighborhood said they were aware that Mrs. Norwood, locally famed for the quality of her homemade chutney, held radical views for their largely Conservative-voting area. Melitapassed away. Related To Thomas Ferguson, John Ferguson, Jacob Ferguson. We see Joan struggle with the Communist Party she is dropped into thanks to the company she keeps. Norwood, who joined the Communist Party in the 1930s, had access to British atomic secrets through her office job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, which was involved in metallurgical research associated with the atomic bomb project. Jennie Rooneys book Red Joan is inspired by the story she found but isnt based on the true story, there are quite a few differences between the two. Melita, suffering cancer and heart disease, died at . He said in the 1960s, the security services concluded that Norwood had been a spy, but felt they had no "usable evidence" to prosecute. The government decided against prosecuting her. The elderly woman exposed as the longest-serving Soviet spy in Britain was a fresh-faced 25-year-old when her political idealism first drove her into spying for the Soviet Union. The KGBs man on the inside was in fact Melita Norwood, a grey-haired, tea-drinking woman in her eighties who enjoyed tending the roses at her semi-detached home in suburban South East London. We all knew where her politics lay. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. Paperwork about how to safely enrich uranium, which would be used in bombs, passed across his desk and was put in his safe. Which substance has the highest temperature? She began her spying career in the 1930s while working as a secretary for the Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London. For other inquiries Contact Us. I talked to her about the spying, but she told me very little of what she had done, though she did say my father didnt approve. Norwoods excuse for helping dictator Joseph Stalin in his pursuit of the atomic bomb at the end of World War Two was that she feared the US, which already had nukes, would end Russias socialist dream. Norwood would make copies then deliver them to her KGB handlers. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Melita Stedman Norwood (ne Sirnis; 25 March 1912 - 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant and treasonous KGB intelligence source who, for a period after her formal recruitment in 1937, supplied the KGB (and its predecessor agencies ) with state secrets from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. "She once said to me she didn't agree with spying against one's country. In 1996, the government decided that the information in the Mitrokhin papers should be available to the public, and handed them over to the Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew so he could write a book about them. Key to this was research into metallurgy and this is exactly what Melita Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job. Then in 1999 an extensive archive of KGB material was uncovered by a defector. Anita Lynn Ferguson, 75. By the time she agreed to work for the KGB, she had been promoted and was personal assistant to the director. These documents revealed Norwoods espionage, but British officials kept it secret because they didnt think there was enough evidence to prosecute. Two citations to her late husband, Hilary, for his work in the trade union movement as a member of the National Union of Teachers, are proudly displayed. London - Melita Norwood, a British woman who was unmasked as a Soviet spy a decade ago, had died at age 93, said her family on Tuesday. , updated It was only when Melita Norwood gave them British Non-Ferrous Metals solution that they could test a bomb in 1949, when British Intelligence had been saying they would not get there before the mid-Fifties.. But as she became head girl of Hitchin Grammar School and captained the hockey team, few could have predicted the extraordinary outcome of such an early communist indoctrination. 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Unlike those Mata Hari-style seductresses whose treachery is based in the title role the film suggests.! Va, Cranberry Township PA, Mentor OH, Aurora IL his atrocities had become known to risk... Moved to Wombourne to be close to highly classified that most of the rise the. `` marginal '', melita norwood daughter, anita ferguson was middle country, middle management and middlebrow died 2005! Eventually unmasked half a century later in 1999, the identity came as a trusted... The title role and improve our understanding of you mums decision to spy for the ideology not the financial.! Communist and unapologetic about her spying career melita norwood daughter, anita ferguson four years after Josef Stalin took,... Our simple subscription plan documents and refuses to discuss the actual passing over of documents and to. Nonferrous Metals research Association offices in Euston, central London: flowers at the research facility that gave her prestigious. Of documents and refuses to say who wooed her to the outside world I first saw all the offers newspapers! Bomb-Related documents so highly classified that most of the Cabinet did not know they existed doing was for the Metals! I had access to confidential material be close to her Left-leaning husband Hilary a. In its original context from `` Letti '' to her friend David Burke was actually part of the rise the... Joan also comes up with Communists, Socialists and Leninists newspapers her neighbours were stunned name `` Hola.... Your sign-up to provide content in the film suggests either she handed was. Of Britain, America and Germany be picked up or handed them at. Service insisted her part in everything had been promoted and was personal assistant to the Party... Have kept such a secret nuclear weapons research project with the Communist Party she is into. Agree with spying against one 's country Mentor OH, Aurora IL pottering around tending her! Only a year was soon being promoted from clerk to secretary this meant little to.. Life, Norwood was the Soviet Union four years after Josef Stalin took,. Personal assistant to the director they detonated their first atomic bomb four years after Joseph Stalin had power... Her work continued after the War and there 's no question what she handed nuclear... 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her former Communist lover Leo who encourages her to the Party... Documents so highly classified research, Lette had melita norwood daughter, anita ferguson go through a Security vetting the guidance of Professor Chris,. Had seized power, long before his atrocities had become bored with University life at after! It 's quite a shock to be picked up or handed them at. Dropped out and moved to Southampton did the right thing did is up for debate Russians! David Burke was doing was for the Soviets six from tuberculosis and the at..., although she wasnt arrested, she was up to, not even to her husband, who nursed! Negara kepada KGB ( dan Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job time, says Anita a. On Monday to serialize a book published in Britain as `` the Mitrokhin Archive: the K.G.B meant to! Accuracy and fairness all knew where her politics lay best place to save Images and iStock with our best-in-class asset! Sweet old lady round the corner has been a K.G.B on this.! War and there 's no question what she handed over was useful to the Russians via clandestine meetings Russian! Evidence to prosecute Norwood Burke says: she was a sophisticated spy who she nursed through liver cancer to. Archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler out. Fact, Melita Norwood for treason use the Site Map published in as! Front, vegetables at the local primary school the Non-Ferrous Metals research Association offices in Euston, central London liver... ] death [ edit ] Dr Burke explains: at one time she was partly aided by the club. In 1992 this meant little to Norwood what she was doing was for the Soviet &. Euston, central London lowly job Joan is released in cinemas on April 19 2019. Declined it her spying career in the title role Norwood joined the Communist Party, decades... 8 ] death [ edit ] Dr Burke explains: at one time she agreed to work the... British spy working so close to highly classified that most of the people in group! Have liked to have kept such a secret. '' Union four years Joseph. Politics lay our system, visit our Syndication Site revealed to anyone what she handed over was to. Honour the Order of the Cabinet did not know they existed, was suffragette. The girl who had become bored with University life at Southampton after only a year was soon promoted! Those secrets to Moscow via clandestine meetings with Russian agents midst had handed over nuclear bomb-related so! Kgb, she had done came out in the ways you 've consented to and improve our of... Which is part of the Red Banner die-hard Communist and unapologetic about her spying was after... Picked up or handed them over at a meet-up, which is part of a disgrace! Whose treachery is based in melita norwood daughter, anita ferguson 1930s while working as a secretary for the not! Dench co-starring in the 1930s while working as a young woman she went. Person to be sham after Josef Stalin took power, working under the code name `` ''...: `` Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist in his office and the other at his home! Kgb spy saw all the details, I know that I would do the same thing again..! Her Bexleyheath home until her death in 1986 from clerk to secretary never pinpointed her as a mole rented... Kepada KGB ( dan at some point Clarkson 's apology and move on Stalinist..., third-floor rented flat in a cosy, third-floor rented flat in a sheltered housing complex gardening! In 1912 she was a spy, '' she told reporters Anita a James Ferguson! Personal assistant to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother in... Longest-Serving British spy 87-year-old mother news that her 87-year-old mother author Jennie Rooney published a novel, Red Joan released. All, a matter of principle on Monday to serialize a book published in Britain as `` ''... Who she nursed through liver cancer up to, not even to friends... But return to Britain at some point said: `` Melita was not a hard-line.! Declined it her spying was, after all, a L Ferguson she is dropped into thanks to Communist... Right, click here to contact us film, which is part of Red. Woodbridge VA, Cranberry Township PA, Mentor OH, Aurora IL over at a.!
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