09:22 GMT 28 Jun 2005, Bungling helicopter pilot blows over stadium roof injuring eight, Coles worker fights a woman allegedly trying to steal groceries, BBC Breakfast celebrates forty years of hilarious bloopers, Royal Family will find it 'impossible' to compromise with Sussexes, Ken Bruce will be joining the Greatest Hits Radio family in April, As it happened: UK Government blocks Scotland's new gender law, Russian pro-war fanatic warns Britain could be 'wiped off the map', Motorists slowly drive down snowy hill in treacherous conditions, Harrowing moment woman begs father not to kill himself, Shamima Begum never considered turning back during journey to ISIS. 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. . On her retirement in 1972, K.G.B. Geoffrey Levy for MailOnline, Drunks who can't keep secrets: What the KGB thought about the Cambridge Five who worked for THEM, GCHQ 'can spy on Facebook and YouTube users and has ability to manipulate online polls', latest Snowden leaks claim, Russia 'to reopen Cold War Cuban listening post used to spy on America', Bungling helicopter pilot blows over stadium roof injuring eight, Rapidly growing cemetery filled with Vladimir Putin's 'prisoner army', BBC Breakfast celebrates forty years of hilarious bloopers, Royal Family will find it 'impossible' to compromise with Sussexes, Ken Bruce will be joining the Greatest Hits Radio family in April, As it happened: UK Government blocks Scotland's new gender law, Russian pro-war fanatic warns Britain could be 'wiped off the map', Motorists slowly drive down snowy hill in treacherous conditions, Harrowing moment woman begs father not to kill himself, Shamima Begum never considered turning back during journey to ISIS. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! I remember her talking to me once about Karl Marx. Described as the most important British female agent recruited by the KGB, the great-grandmother spied under. The daughter of a Latvian father and an English mother, Norwood held fiercely left-wing views from an early age. Only in 1965 did MI5 get wise to the risk she posed. She connects with her former Communist lover Leo who encourages her to hand over secrets to the Russians. 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. anita ferguson daughter of melita norwood About; FAQ; Contacts; Location Unlike those Mata Hari-style seductresses whose treachery is based in the boudoir, Mrs Norwood was a very different kind of agent. Melita Norwood. During that time she had handed over the country's secrets - willingly - to Russia, among them crucial information about the atomic bomb and its development. "I must have thought if any of the work the BN-FMRA was doing, not secret stuff, might be useful," she explained. These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. Asisten pribadi, mata-mata. In 1967, she recruited a British civil servant 'Hunt' who passed on secrets about arms sales for nearly 15 years. Her espionage activities weren't publicly revealed until 1999, when former archivist Vasili Mitrokhin - who. Born in 1912 she was brought up with Communists, Socialists and Leninists. , updated 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". Filming of Red Joan in Cambridge City Centre (Image: Keith Jones) Red Joan is a film based, although highly romanticised, on the true story of spy Melita Norwood who stole . 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. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. Related To Thomas Ferguson, John Ferguson, Jacob Ferguson. She thought he was the best. Norwood's father died when was six from tuberculosis and the family moved to Southampton. Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos 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. She'd leave them somewhere to be picked up or handed them over at a meet-up. 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). Melita Norwood, on the other hand codenamed Hola was a model of reliability. 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.'' Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op. She has one daughter who works in a school laboratory, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. At the age of 20, in . 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. ''When I first saw all the. 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. Norwood joined Southampton University but dropped out and moved to Germany at the time of the rise of the Nazis. All Rights Reserved. How did Norwood get away with it for so long? Required fields are marked *. 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. / Like many nonagenarians, Melita Norwood did her best to keep her mind active. Melita Norwood was a member of one of those communist spy networks in America and Britain, who by guaranteeing those weapons of mass destruction threw down a challenge to America as sole superpower in the post-Second World War era. 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. It was middle country, middle class, middle management and middlebrow. We cannot guarantee accuracy of data published on this website. 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. She was only a secretary.. only confirmed she was a spy in the 1990s. Find family history information in a whole new way. 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. Melita Norwood passed secrets to the Russians for decades after being recruited in 1935 by a former correspondent for the Soviet news agency TASS. Red Joan (2018) Ben Miles as Nick IMDb. She began spying for the Soviet Union four years after Josef Stalin took power, working under the code name "Hola". The trick is to be able to do this efficiently enough, and respond quickly enough, to take on the game's content that you would like to experience while . 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. 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. "I do not consider myself a spy," she told reporters. July 21, 2020 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review, Your email address will not be published. What is the disease caused by diplococci. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research. His occupation was Yes. She added, ''In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country.''. There were several cries of ''traitor!'' A writer, journalism and follower of Lenin - who formed the Communist Party in Great Britain - they were acquainted. How she came to be in a position to do that is a source of great embarrassment to MI5. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. 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. Geoffrey Levy for MailOnline Two weeks ago, nine years after her death, Melitas barely-known name unexpectedly re-emerged when the Mitrokhin Archive, a file of top secret Soviet documents, was made available to the public for the first time. She was lovely, a pure lady, says Sheila Howell, who was a neighbour for more than 20 years. 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. 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. Anita FergusonMelita Norwood / Daughter. ''But she was just the normal grandmother who came in once a week to pay her bill. Despite having put millions of lives at risk, Norwood, who died in 2005 aged 93, was never prosecuted for her treachery and she never expressed regret for her actions. 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. If you want to learn more about this . He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page. 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. Melitapassed away. She was born in Bournemouth to Alexander Sirnis, a Latvian immigrant with strong Communist ties. Jennie Rooneys book Red Joan is inspired by the story she found but, When Leo is away, Joan begins to fall for co-worker. Her motivations weren't as pure as the film suggests either. Judi Dench says later as a young woman she just went along with it. It was incredibly valuable. For her part, Lette Norwood didnt allow exposure of her treachery to ruin her Morning Star delivery routine, which continued uninterrupted. 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. Close. 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. 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. 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