Find family history information in a whole new way. "'I Gave Bomb Secrets to Russia So It Could Stand Up to the West.'" . He suspected she had been meeting KGB agents when she arrived back late from work, but did not know the extent of her crimes. A . At first she's unsure, but then we see her give in because she wants an even playing field between Russian and the USA. Something went wrong, please try again later. 00:34 GMT 19 Jul 2014 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. I remember her talking to me once about Karl Marx, he says. Melita Norwood. 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 Norwood was a grey-haired, tea-drinking 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. Her lofty motivations are a far cry from Norwood's deliberate choices. "It was a complete shock at the time. Agent Hola's time was up. Age. "In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country. She was an emotional Communist and quite naive. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. 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. By Norwood died on June 2, 2005 never facing trial for her crimes. 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. In many other countries, the grey-haired great-grandmother would have ended her days in prison, or even been shot. Judi Dench says later as a young woman she just went along with it. 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. 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. 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. It came as a massive shock to her daughter and to Dr Burke, who already knew Norwood. He said in the 1960s, the security services concluded that Norwood had been a spy, but felt they had no "usable evidence" to prosecute. "Granny spy" Melita Norwood has died at the age of 93, her daughter has confirmed. Required fields are marked *. Date of death. 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. Melitamarried Hilary Norwood. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. On her retirement in 1972, K.G.B. Its just what you did she says. But she continued to send these secret files until the early 1970s, when she retired as a spy. "And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. 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. 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. Anita (l. 1943) Pekerjaan. Working so close to highly classified research, Lette had to go through a security vetting. This was a woman who was seen pottering around tending to her vegetables and flowers. Cu MIX za . "In general I do not agree with spying against one's country.". 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. 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. The girl who had become bored with university life at Southampton after only a year was soon being promoted from clerk to secretary. She was a traitor to her country and had got away with it for decades. Incredibly, despite doubts about her extreme Left-wing sympathies and links, she was cleared. , updated Universitas Southampton. By the time she agreed to work for the KGB, she had been promoted and was personal assistant to the director. Melita Norwood was the daughter of a Latvian father and English mother, and had a sister and half-brother. ''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.''. Includes Address (9) Phone (3) Email (1) See Results. ''But I suppose it's all right as long as you are getting paid for it. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. Collect, curate and comment on your files. 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. 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. In general, I do not agree with spying against ones country. Red Joan is released in cinemas on April 19, 2019. She wasnt like the Cambridge Five, who courted disaster. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. appaloosa management short hills; opdl teams looking for players; io nerf paladins; ottawa tribe symbols; loyola chicago sorority recruitment; an unfinished life ending; TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. But a decision not to put her on trial was quickly taken so that the collapsing Soviets would remain in ignorance about just how much we knew. A . Her ability to understand technical material meant she was promoted to secretary to the director. Anita Ferguson, 61, Mrs Norwood's only daughter, confirmed her mother's death, but . Where those men hid their activities behind their upper-class backgrounds, elite educations and urbanity, Mrs. Norwood disguised hers with her complete suburban unremarkableness. Anita L Ferguson, 52. Melita Norwood made her unrepentant confession Saturday in the well-tended garden of freesia and daisies in front of her two-story stucco home in Bexleyheath, southeast London. Asked if she had ever been frightened of being caught, she said, ''I suppose so, but I can't remember pondering it.''. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. It was a complete shock at the time, says Anita, now 71. It was a show of compassion Russian wouldn't have shown if the tables were turned. 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 handed over a very large number of documents of a scientific and technical nature, and these found practical application.". Hilary Norwood Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research. 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. I talked to her about the spying, but she told me very little of what she had done, although she did say my father didn't approve.". ''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. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. Melita Norwood aged 87 when she faced the cameras ( Image: PA) Sophie Cookson plays Joan Stanley, who is based on Norwood ( Image: Nick Wall/Lions Gate) Don't Miss Norwood wasn't a. I certainly didnt.. She retired in 1972, and remained in her Bexleyheath home until her death in 2005. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images), 1268 x 1012 px (4.23 x 3.37 in) - 300 dpi - 357 KB. 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". It was a terrible shock. 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. Melita Norwood akhirnya meninggal dunia pada tahun 2005 tetapi orang tetap terpesona dengan kisah hidupnya. 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. 2023 Getty Images. She was in control all the way through.. 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. She was born Melita Sirnis in 1912 near Southampton, the daughter of an English mother and a Latvian father who was a follower of Leo Tolstoy. Melita Norwood, now called Joan Stanley, is played by two actors. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Union's longest-serving British spy. Posted on January 17, 2022 | by . We sent soldiers there to die against Hitler. Lettes work for the Soviets continued right up until her retirement from the company in 1972, when she was 60. Norwood was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. five years later, saying only, ''Somebody said that my work might be an interesting source of material.'' 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. Who is Melitta Norwood? 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. She took top-secret documents from the Tube Alloys project - the cover name for the nuclear weapons programme - copied them and passed them to her KGB handlers. Though Norwoods employers were suspicious of her ties to the Communist Party, over decades of work they never pinpointed her as a mole. Some believe, however, the real reason she was not put on trial was to avoid embarrassing details emerging about MI5s mistake in allowing her to work as a personal secretary at the very heart of Britains secret atomic research, even though she was known to have Communist sympathies. 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. Melita was thirty-eight years of age and Hilary was approaching his fortieth birthday. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images) Embed Save PURCHASE A LICENSE Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, said she died on June 2. 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. Resides in Monticello, AR. 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. He too was a member of the Communist Party. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Union's longest-serving British spy. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 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. View our online Press Pack. melita norwood daughter anita ferguson One said to the Sunday Mercury: "We all knew where her politics lay. 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. He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. 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She says he disapproved of her spying, but "never tried to stop me". [8] Death [ edit] "I do not consider myself a spy," she told reporters. When he called her to ask if the story was true, she replied, Ive been a rather naughty little girl, then dressed up for the Press camped outside her Bexleyheath home. Mona Maund, one of the first female MI5 agents, actually identified Norwood as a possible spy back in the 1930s, when Norwood was at the beginning of her espionage career. For example, she used Che Guevara tea mugs and habitually posted copies of the Communist Morning Star through the letterboxes of 32 of her neighbours. We all knew where her politics lay. Anita Ferguson Dr Burke explains: At one time she was vetted again. 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. Norwoods secret finally came out in September 1999, when The Times of London began to publish Andrews book serially. Anita Ferguson, 75, who lives in a small house in the West Midlands, told The Sun: She did it to help the Russian people. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. She added, ''In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country.''. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and. ''But she was just the normal grandmother who came in once a week to pay her bill. Everyone liked her. She ended her days in a cosy, third-floor rented flat in a sheltered housing complex. Alma mater. The government decided against prosecuting her. It seemed as if she'd got away with it all - and there was a lot to get away with. When her activities became publicly known in 1999, Norwood had 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 a health service. It was incredibly valuable. These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. "Whatever she may have done, I loved her. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. As early as 1938, she was nearly caught by the British. Then in 1932, Norwood, now 20, began work in the clerical department of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (BN-FMRA). '', Ray Simmons, 67, a retired chief technician at the University of Greenwich, who lives nearby, commented: ''I've known her for 20 years, and she never gave a hint of anything like that. what happened to melita norwood. This was to be her big chance, as the association played a key part in our nuclear project, codenamed Tube Alloys when it began four years later. [9] The film was shot in the UK. Intriguingly, it included profiles of 200 British KGB collaborators written by their Kremlin handlers. In 2000, Joan is arrested and charged with espionage. anita ferguson daughter of melita norwood About; FAQ; Contacts; Location; Rose, David. "It's just what you did" she says. 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. Until her death in 2005 . Melita Norwood was a great-grandmother when her espionage was finally revealed. 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. handlers, she said, she would blame it on traffic tie-ups -- an excuse he accepted though he knew it to be sham. She was dressed in a wide-collared lavender floral print blouse and gray tweed skirt and clutched a handwritten piece of paper with slightly trembling fingers. Anita said: She kept it from everyone. 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. Baru-baru ini filem Red Joan lakonan Judi Dench sebagai Joan Stanley telah dihasilkan dan ditayangkan. The couple had, Its just what you did she says. / She declined it her spying was, after all, a matter of principle. The next four decades saw her hand over secrets and files under the name of Agent Hola. 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. 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. Having dropped out of the University of Southampton after just one year, Norwood joined a spy ring trying to steal details of a naval gun from Woolwich in 1937. 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. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. When she returned to the firm in 1944, she went to work for the director, Dr G. L. Bailey, who wanted Lette because he knew she could cope with the technical jargon. 09:21 GMT 28 Jun 2005 In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. . Which substance has the highest temperature? As she retreated back into her house, she murmured, ''No, no, no,'' to shouted questions asking whether she regretted her actions. At firs the Security Service insisted her part in everything had been "marginal", it was a huge embarrassment. The Russians knew how to build a bomb, but they didnt know how to build a nuclear reactor to extract the uranium. All of this is shown in Red Joan, but what's missing is the other work Norwood did - she was also a recruiter. 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 Norwood, on the other hand codenamed Hola was a model of reliability. She had been working for five years in the general office of the British Non Ferrous Metals Research Association in Euston, North London when her career in espionage first began. Husband (m. 19351986). She said her purpose had been to keep Russia abreast.". "I must have thought if any of the work the BN-FMRA was doing, not secret stuff, might be useful," she explained. He founded the Southern Worker And Labour And Socialist Journal in Southampton. '', See the article in its original context from. There were several cries of ''traitor!'' Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page. Had she seen for herself her KGB handlers description of her as loyal and trustworthy, it would have come as no surprise, for this is precisely how she saw herself in doing her bit to prevent the defeat of the Communist creed. I made the approach.". Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Mon 27 Jun 2005 20.03 EDT. Ironically, reporters found anti-nuclear CND signs in her kitchen, where she made chutney. 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. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. ''I would not have liked to have kept such a secret.''. 87years (December 9, 1934) 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. 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. 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). She was perusing the archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. Includes Address (23) Phone (7) Email (7) See Results. "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.". <br> <br>'Red Joan': the film vs the facts. 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. This week her daughter defended her mums decision to spy for the Soviets from 1934 to 1972. 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. Pada tahun 2013, penulis Jennie Rooney telah menerbitkan sebuah novel berjudul Red Joan, berdasarkan kisah kehidupan Norwood. ''It is a longstanding policy not to confirm or deny the details of security service investigations,'' she said. 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. Red Joan (2018) Ben Miles as Nick IMDb. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. As a member of the Independent Labour Party, and later the Communist Party, she had already been recruited as an agent at a meeting of the Friends of the Soviet Union. 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.. Melita, suffering cancer and heart disease, died at . Anita Ferguson, a school laboratory technician from Wombourne, Staffordshire, speaks to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother. 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. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Joan Staley, the film, TV and stage actress died 24 November at the age of 79. Daughter. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. Melita Norwood made her unrepentant confession Saturday in the well-tended garden of freesia and daisies in front of her two-story stucco home in Bexleyheath, southeast London. She began spying for the Soviet Union four years after Josef Stalin took power, working under the code name "Hola". These documents revealed Norwoods espionage, but British officials kept it secret because they didnt think there was enough evidence to prosecute.
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