Melita Norwood aka Hola | Photo Credits: Green Left When asked to picture a KGB spy who smuggled nuclear secrets during the heights of the cold war, very few would imagine an 87-year-old great . Her mother still remained part of the Left-wing political scene, influencing young Norwood who then joined the CPGB. Melita Norwood: The Soviet Union's Longest-Serving British Spy 220,739 views Mar 20, 2020 7K Dislike Share Save Biographics 2.08M subscribers Check out Business Blaze:. Alma mater. Now her double life has inspired the film Red Joan, with Dame Judi Dench co-starring in the title role. Mon 27 Jun 2005 20.03 EDT. She thought what she was doing was for the benefit of the entire world. 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. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. 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. from the crowd in her street. She had links with a spy ring working for the Soviets in the Woolwich Arsenal, and three other agents were caught by MI5 and imprisoned. She told the newspaper that ''in the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same thing again.''. She didnt draw attention to herself. It was not that side I was interested in. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Her father had fled from Russia to England and found a home here, but this meant little to Norwood. I made the approach.". Members of her family didnt know what was going on at all. ''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 read in a firm voice. We sent soldiers there to die against Hitler. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Her handler described her as a loyal, trustworthy, disciplined agent who passed to the KGB a large amount of vital data. Key to this was research into metallurgy and this is exactly what Melita Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job. The file arrived in Britain in 1992 when KGB Major Vasili Mitrokhin defected to Britain, bringing with him, in six trunks, an archive of 30 years of Soviet secrets. The couple had one child, Anita, who was born in 1943. It was a complete shock at the time, says Anita, now 71. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed. 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. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. It was her refusal to get drawn into the glamorous side of being a mole, unlike Philby from the Cambridge University set, that allowed Norwood to evade detection. She was born in Bournemouth to Alexander Sirnis, a Latvian immigrant with strong Communist ties. "I do not consider myself a spy," she told reporters. Collect, curate and comment on your files. '', See the article in its original context from. "She once said to me she didn't agree with spying against one's country. Where in Bexleyheath did Melita Norwood live? , updated It also offered her a pension of 20 a month. 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. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images), 1268 x 1012 px (4.23 x 3.37 in) - 300 dpi - 357 KB. Melita Norwood June 2, 2005 Journalism strengthens democracy. Theodore Rothstein was one of the people in their group. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. 93-year-old spy still keeping war secrets - BBC News Creative Editorial Spy/Daughter Anita Ferguson 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. Home Secretary Jack Straw has asked Britain's internal Security Service, M.I.5, for a full report on the case, but a Home Office spokeswoman said today that the Government would have no comment on the other names emerging. 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 . And the sleepy South Staffordshire . Norwood worked tirelessly against Britain for four decades before she retired from her spy life in 1972. As the news of Norwoods espionage broke in The Times, Norwood held a press conference to confirm that she was a spy and explain why shed done it. It was directed by Trevor Nunn, [10] and produced by David Parfitt, with a screenplay by Lindsay Shapero. Year old great-grandmother Melita Norwood stands outside her home in Bexleyheath, where she reads a statement to the press concerning her involment. 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. Everyone liked 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. What is the disease caused by diplococci. Related To Thomas Ferguson, John Ferguson, Jacob Ferguson. Collect, curate and comment on your files. But this was just a token attempt.The main story is a standard spy . Melita Norwood, pictured here at age 87 in 1999, standing outside her home in Bexleyheath, where she reads a statement to the press concerning her involvement in passing over atomic secrets to the KGB. ''In the war the Russians were on our side, and it was unfair to them that they shouldn't be able to develop their weaponry.''. Anita Ferguson, 61, Mrs Norwood's only daughter, confirmed her mother's death, but . Hilary Norwood As early as 1938, she was nearly caught by the British. Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op. She says she was working for the ideology not the financial reward. Until her death in 2005 . Still, she refuses to discuss the actual passing over of documents and refuses to say who wooed her to the KGB. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Union's longest-serving British spy. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. spy. The reality is that Norwood was devoted to her husband, who she nursed through liver cancer up to his death in 1986. 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. 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. They had been married for 50 years when he died in 1986. Includes Address (9) Phone (3) Email (1) See Results. In Wombourne, South Staffordshire, 120 miles away, her daughter Anita, a school laboratory technician, was astonished at the revelations about her elderly mother, and described herself as being in a state of disbelief. 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.''. Find family history information in a whole new way. Except for one thing she worked at the British NonFerrous Metals Research Association offices in Euston, central London. Something went wrong, please try again later. Melita Norwood akhirnya meninggal dunia pada tahun 2005 tetapi orang tetap terpesona dengan kisah hidupnya. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), New film Red Joan tells the tale of Melita Norwood - a KGB 'man on the inside' who went undetected in Britain for almost 40 years, Melita Norwood, aka Hola, was Russia's most effective spy and wasn't unmasked until 1999, Described as 'the most important female agent ever recruited by the USSR', she is now the inspiration behind Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson's character with the pair playing her at different stages in her life, Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, defends her mother's career as a spy saying 'she did it to help the Russian people', Anita says Norwood was trying to help people and 'wasn't selfish', After joining the Communist Party, Norwood was recruited as a Russian agent by journalist Andrew Rothstein when she was just 22, The film is a glamorised version of events but there is no doubt it is based on unlikely operative Norwood, She never revealed her true identity, not even to her devoted husband Hilary (right), Despite having put millions of lives at risk, Norwood was never prosecuted for her treachery and she never expressed regret for her actions, Norwood leaked highly-classified documents that she came into contact with through her work as a secretary to the director of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, Dr Burke says that it was only when she gave the Russians information on how to safely enrich uranium that they were able to test a bomb in 1949, Dr Burke believes Norwood enjoyed her moment of notoriety, noting the moment she dressed up to address the press outside her home, Asked if the story was true, Norwood replied 'Ive been a rather naughty little girl', Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). It came as a massive shock to her daughter and to Dr Burke, who already knew Norwood. 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. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. The cause of death was not disclosed. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. 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. She's a very good person, very strong and totally unmaterialistic," she told The Daily Mail at the time. She wasnt like the Cambridge Five, who courted disaster. It was middle country, middle class, middle management and middlebrow. Incredibly, despite doubts about her extreme Left-wing sympathies and links, she was cleared. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Burke still believes Norwood was the naive character Joan protrays. We didnt know what to think.. anita ferguson daughter of melita norwood About; FAQ; Contacts; Location; Rose, David. She told me she would have been prepared to be tried as a war criminal and would have accepted a prison sentence.. And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. In 2000, Joan is arrested and charged with espionage. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. Well, she was partly aided by the boys club atmosphere of MI5, the British Security Service. "It's just what you did" she says. But to the neighbours in Garden Avenue, Bexleyheath, a pleasant street of semis and discreet net curtains, Lette was viewed as a charming old lady who just happened to be a bit eccentric and very openly Left-wing. Melita Norwood passed secrets to the Russians for decades after being recruited in 1935 by a former correspondent for the Soviet news agency TASS. [8] Death [ edit] 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). <br> <br>1. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 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. As early as 1938, she was. Melita Norwood. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. 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. On September 11th 1999 The Times newspaper carried the front page article "Revealed: the quiet woman who betrayed Britain for 40 years. Melita would drop off her seven-year-old daughter, Anita, at the local primary school. Her KGB file gave her a glowing review calling her "committed, reliable and disciplined agent, striving to be of the utmost assistance. Norwood's daughter, Anit Her memorable film roles included The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, alongside Elvis Presley in Roustabout, and on TV in series including Perry Mason and 77 Sunset Strip. 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. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system a very good person, very strong and totally,... 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