
After four years in the post, he was moved to MI6. In the Cabinet Office, he worked as private secretary to Sir Maurice Hankey, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

He initially worked in the treasury and later in 1940 was transferred to work in the Cabinet Office, at the heart of the UK government. Cairncross was a British literary scholar. John Cairncross, was recruited as a Soviet spy in 1936 by James Klugmann, a prominent British communist. His betrayal highly embarrassing for the United Kingdom, who had failed to arrest him when they had the chance. On 23rd January 1963, Philby vanished from his home in Beirut, appearing in Moscow six months later. These allegations led Nicholas Elliott, an intelligence officer stationed near Philby in Beirut, to confront him in 1962. In 1961, the Soviet KGB defector Major Anatoliy Golitsyn named several moles within the British and United States intelligence services, including confirming Philby as the “third man”. He was even re-employed by the Secret Intelligence Service of Britain, to deliver reports from the Middle East region. He was offered employment from The Observer newspaper as well as The Economist.
DONALD MACCLEAN FREE
In that same year, almost unbelievably, he was removed from the suspect list and became free of all charges.Īfter his exoneration, Kim Philby went on to work as a journalist in the Middle East. In 1955, he addressed the suspicions head on, appearing in a press conference to deny all allegations made against him. Somerton Man: Taman Shud Case Remains Unsolved.Who Was Aleister Crowley…Occultist, Satanist, and British Spy?.The gave them access to a a lot of sensitive information, which they passed on to the Soviet Union. All of them pursued different careers in the British government in different branches.

Apart from these three, the other members of the spy group were called Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross.Īll five members of the group were convinced that Soviet Communism’s Marxism-Leninism was the best political system. These two members were even honored and given a tribute from the foreign intelligence service of Russia.Īs a result of their sudden disappearance, suspicion also fell on Kim Philby, the central member of the five, who himself fled the country in 1963. The conspiracy came to the attention of the general public in 1951 owing to the sudden flight of two of the five, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.

This group of 5 graduates of Cambridge University, recruited while students and traitors to their country, passed on vital information to the Soviet Union from the end of World War II and into the early stages of the Cold War. The scandal of the Cambridge 5 is probably the most prominent and damaging intelligence disaster the United Kingdom has ever had.
