We didnt know what to think.. 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). In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. But for the 40 years that she worked for Moscow, her bank balance rarely reflected the spoils of her labour. 1999, 22 April Mr Straw is told that the Attorney General had advised against prosecution as it would be "inappropriate". While his identity still remains unknown to the public, Norwood confessed later: "I am not going to deny itI take complete responsibility and blame.". Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op. Also known as Anita A James, Ferguson Anita. 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 . It was incredibly valuable. Now her double life has inspired the film Red Joan, with Dame Judi Dench co-starring in the title role. 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. At first she's unsure, but then we see her give in because she wants an even playing field between Russian and the USA. How fortunate she was. Melita Norwood. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. Towards the end of the war, it was carrying out highly classified government research into the properties of uranium, as part of Britains atomic bomb project. A . He founded the Southern Worker And Labour And Socialist Journal in Southampton. The how is known, the what is mostly conjecture, which makes Judi Dench's film a controversial adaptation - it opts for a more romantic take on the tale that has been called everything from "preposterous" to "inaccurate". Her handlers were top Soviet spies Ursula Kuczynski, aka Red Sonja, and playboy Gordon Lonsdale, who was jailed in 1961 for espionage. At the height of the war in 1943, she took time off to have a child, Anita. She has one daughter who works in a school laboratory, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. 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 . Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Well, she was partly aided by the boys club atmosphere of MI5, the British Security Service. Her father had fled from Russia to England and found a home here, but this meant little to Norwood. All Rights Reserved. Anita L Ferguson, 52. 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. ''It's probably better I didn't know,'' she said. "But I didnt immediately think of pinching it. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. 09:21 GMT 28 Jun 2005 Collect, curate and comment on your files. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Norwood never revealed to anyone what she was up to, not even to her Left-leaning husband Hilary, a maths teacher. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Spy Melita Norwood (far left) pictured with her mother Gertrude, sister Gerty and half-brother Alfred Brandt. She thought what she was doing was for the benefit of the entire world. For other inquiries Contact Us. <br>Who would have thought she was a spy? The media were all gathered to hear what she had to say after revelations in the newspaper that day - Norwood had been a Soviet spy for nearly 40 years. She removed items from her boss' safe, photographing details and sending them on to the Soviets, as is seen in the film. 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. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 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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. 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. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. After that, although she wasnt arrested, she found she was no longer getting access to confidential material.. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. 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 . She was only a secretary.. This week her daughter defended her mums decision to spy for the Soviets from 1934 to 1972. Norwoods secret finally came out in September 1999, when The Times of London began to publish Andrews book serially. Norwood was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. 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. 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. And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. Melita Norwood Melita grew up to become a bright young girl, which she proved in 1923 by winning a scholarship to attend Itchen School, a secondary school near Southampton, in Southern England. "I do not consider myself a spy," she told reporters. With fish fingers on the side. He too was a member of the Communist Party. For the KGB, this was an unbelievable piece of good fortune, because Bailey happened to be a member of the advisory committee on the atom bomb project. 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:. The British government decided nothing was to be gained from sending the "granny spy" to prison, and Mrs Norwood was left in peace at her home in Bexleyheath. The couple had, Its just what you did she says. Pendant prs de 35 ans, Mme Norwood a copi et transfr vers l'Union sovitique des centaines de documents secrets sur le programme nuclaire . She was a traitor to her country and had got away with it for decades. 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. She began spying for the Soviet Union four years after Josef Stalin took power, working under the code name "Hola". Except for one thing she worked at the British NonFerrous Metals Research Association offices in Euston, central London. <br> <br>1. ''I thought they should somehow be adequately defended because everyone was against them, against this experiment, and they had been through such hardship from the Germans,'' she told her television interviewer. When she visited Moscow with her husband in 1979, she was given an honor for her work, the Order of the Red Banner, which she accepted, and offered a financial reward, which she turned down. I certainly didnt.. [10] [9] It premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. After all, Norwood had actually been investigated no less than seven times, she'd even been identified as a security risk in 1965. He suspected she had been meeting KGB agents when she arrived back late from work, but did not know the extent of her crimes. Mentioned only by codenames, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, of the infamous Cambridge Five, got critical mention: Burgess for not dressing tidily and being constantly under the influence of alcohol, and Maclean for his drunk spells and being not very good at keeping secrets. Melitapassed away. 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. For her part, Lette Norwood didnt allow exposure of her treachery to ruin her Morning Star delivery routine, which continued uninterrupted. / 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. Daughter of Alex Sirnis and Private Wife of . They had one daughter: Anita Ferguson (born Norwood). "In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country. The couple's daughter, Anita Ferguson, 56, a biologist living in Staffordshire, said she learned of her mother's activity from the newspaper report Saturday. Melita Norwood, now called Joan Stanley, is played by two actors. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Straw said: "She had not in practice had authorized access to government secrets after 1949," and her security clearance was revoked in 1951. 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.''. She was lovely, a pure lady, says Sheila Howell, who was a neighbour for more than 20 years. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. The reality is that Norwood was devoted to her husband, who she nursed through liver cancer up to his death in 1986. 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. Resides in Fairfax Station, VA. Red Joan is certainly a watchable curiosity, but as a piece of political discourse, it seems strangely ham-fisted and bland. Then in 1932, Norwood, now 20, began work in the clerical department of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (BN-FMRA). Norwood died on June 2, 2005 never facing trial for her crimes. She told the newspaper that ''in the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same thing again.''. The government decided against prosecuting her. I made the approach.". Only in 1965 did MI5 get wise to the risk she posed. Includes Address (9) Phone (3) Email (1) See Results. When she was unmasked publicly as Hola seven years later, no action was taken against her because by then she was 87, and Jack Straw, then Labour Home Secretary, decided that at her age, nothing was to be gained from sending her to prison. While three of the gang were uncovered, she escaped discovery and took up a job as a secretary at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in the same year. In the film, the young Red Joan, played by Kingsman actress Sophie Cookson, is seduced by a handler and has an affair with her boss. 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. 00:48 GMT 19 Jul 2014. Melita turned down all the offers from newspapers, preferring to tell her story - for free - to her friend David Burke. A . When everything she had done came out in the newspapers her neighbours were stunned. Cu MIX za . Mrs. Norwood had been obliged to confront the press gathered at her gate by disclosures of her past in The Times of London. in Aktuality. As early as 1938, she was nearly caught by the British. She added, ''In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country.''. 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 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. 00:34 GMT 19 Jul 2014 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 . It was a terrible shock. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. Also known as Anita L Goertz, A L Ferguson. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. The 87-year-old suburban London woman who admitted that for decades she had furnished the Soviet Union with research documents from Britain's top secret nuclear weapons development program is a most improbable spy. ''It was a very big shock, I had no idea, no idea at all.'' Shed then pass the camera off to her contact in the KGB, who knew her by her code name Hola.. 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. She was a bit worried so she took an aspirin before going in. "When she became politically active in the 1930s, Russia was seen by many people as the only nation capable of defeating the Nazis. 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. Then in 1999 an extensive archive of KGB material was uncovered by a defector. Widowed, Melita moved to Wombourne to be close to her daughter. Something went wrong, please try again later. ''It is a longstanding policy not to confirm or deny the details of security service investigations,'' she said. 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. Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, said she died on June 2. We cannot guarantee accuracy of data published on this website. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. 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. Your email address will not be published. She claims failing memory as a reason for not being able to recall the names of any of the people she dealt with. 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. The next week, the writer David Burke visited her and found her still in a state of shock, as he wrote in The London Magazine. One said to the Sunday Mercury: "We all knew where her politics lay. Melita Norwood, on the other hand codenamed Hola was a model of reliability. 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. The Soviet Union's bomb coincided with the onset of The Cold War, and threatened humankind with extinction. Agent Hola's time was up. spy. But the unremarkable but highly intelligent office worker would pass those secrets to Moscow via clandestine meetings with Russian agents. anita ferguson daughter of melita norwood About; FAQ; Contacts; Location; Rose, David. [9] The film was shot in the UK. But this was just a token attempt.The main story is a standard spy . If you want to learn more about this . There were several cries of ''traitor!'' Geoffrey Levy for MailOnline Indeed, so trusted was Lette that she had access to Baileys two safes. The information she passed to Stalin's government was said to have helped the Soviets build an atomic bomb two or three years earlier than they otherwise would. Despite being investigated by them TEN times, and not hiding her socialist sympathies, Norwood secured a job that gave her access to Britains nuclear secrets. It became clear later, when Pavel Sudoplatov of the Russian Ministry of State Security admitted it was 'sources' from Great Britain that helped with such problems, that it was Norwood who gave them the final puzzle piece. He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. In general, I do not agree with spying against ones country. In the interview with The Times of London, she said that her husband, Hilary, a mathematics teacher who died in 1986, shared her Communist ideology but disapproved of her actively aiding the Russians. A pure lady, says Sheila Howell, who she nursed through liver cancer to... Her labour when everything she had done came out in the Newspapers her neighbours were stunned the Getty.... To be close to her husband, who knew her by her code name Hola couple. Claims failing memory as a reason for not being able to recall the names of News Group Newspapers Limited... Death in 1986 9 ] it premiered at the 2018 Toronto International film Festival remained with. 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Faq ; Contacts ; Location ; Rose, David was not a hard-line Stalinist the U.S. called Alloy. Do the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same again! Took power, working under the code name Hola accepting comments on this website token attempt.The main story is trademark... Didnt immediately think of pinching it some point KGB material was uncovered by a.! A Standard spy spy melita Norwood, on the other hand codenamed Hola was a spy, she. Failing memory as a reason for not being able to recall the names of any of Cold... Nearly caught by the boys club atmosphere of MI5, the British service... Called Joan Stanley, is played by two actors in September 1999, the! Onset of the war in 1943, she was a very big shock, I do not agree spying.

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