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. In many other countries, the grey-haired great-grandmother would have ended her days in prison, or even been shot. Mrs. Ferguson said she would stand by her mother -- a great-grandmother -- ''whatever she may have done'' and voiced relief that she had not been told before. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. Still, she refuses to discuss the actual passing over of documents and refuses to say who wooed her to the KGB. / Apart from passing on nuclear secrets, Norwood recruited at least one person to be a KGB spy. Year old great-grandmother Melita Norwood stands outside her home in Bexleyheath, where she reads a statement to the press concerning her involment. Norwood was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The revelations came as a total surprise to Norwood's daughter, Anita Ferguson, who didnt find out her mother was a spy until she read about it in the paper. 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. "She handed over a very large number of documents of a scientific and technical nature, and these found practical application.". Her confession that sunny Saturday came as a surprise to everyone but none more than her daughter, Anita, a school lab technician. 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. Secrets of Bletchley Park: How codebreakers paved way for World War 2 victory, Ex-spy killing 'linked to unsolved murder of Brit family in the Alps', Novichok victim Charlie Rowley asks Putin's man 'did you kill my girlfriend? 1999, 22 April Mr Straw is told that the Attorney General had advised against prosecution as it would be "inappropriate". Tony Harris - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images. Red Joan (2018) Ben Miles as Nick IMDb. 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. Sat 2 Jul 2005 21.01 EDT. Incredibly, despite doubts about her extreme Left-wing sympathies and links, she was cleared. Norwood would make copies then deliver them to her KGB handlers. She ended her days in a cosy, third-floor rented flat in a sheltered housing complex. Age. But what Melita exactly did is up for debate. Who would have thought she was a spy? FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Dr Burke explains: At one time she was vetted again. "'I Gave Bomb Secrets to Russia So It Could Stand Up to the West.'" . In 2013, author Jennie Rooney published a novel, Red Joan, loosely based on Norwoods life. And in April 2019, a film adaptation premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. starring Judi Dench as Joan Stanley, the fictional counterpart to Melita Norwood, the real-life spy. "I do not consider myself a spy," she told reporters. 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 . It was middle country, middle class, middle management and middlebrow. Legacy Six years later, Melita Norwood died of cancer and heart disease at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, on June 2, 2005. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. Prosecution was considered inappropriate due to ill health and advanced years. She retired in 1972, and remained in her Bexleyheath home until her death in 2005. Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos 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. Ironically, reporters found anti-nuclear CND signs in her kitchen, where she made chutney. 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. But the unremarkable but highly intelligent office worker would pass those secrets to Moscow via clandestine meetings with Russian agents. Universitas Southampton. With fish fingers on the side. She declined it her spying was, after all, a matter of principle. It was incredibly valuable. Newly released files from the Mitrokhin archive make clear how vital a KGB source Norwood . Until her death, on 2 June at the age of 93, she began her days with the Today programme. What is the disease caused by diplococci. One was in his office and the other at his London home. In the BBC interview she is vague about how she came to start working for the K.G.B. Agent Hola's time was up. Available for both RF and RM licensing. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. 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. 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 too was a member of the Communist Party. , updated She was perusing the archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler. Born in 1912 she was brought up with Communists, Socialists and Leninists. "She once said to me she didn't agree with spying against one's country. Theodore Rothstein was one of the people in their group. Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, said she died on June 2. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Daughter. 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. Lettes work for the Soviets continued right up until her retirement from the company in 1972, when she was 60. Red Joan is a 2018 film very loosely inspired by Norwood's life, starring Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson. Norwood was coming clean because a Cambridge historian had discovered her espionage while writing a book, but she was unrepentant. Alma mater. 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. For other inquiries Contact Us. Melita Norwood was a die-hard communist and unapologetic about her spying. 2023 Getty Images. ''But I suppose it's all right as long as you are getting paid for it. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. 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. 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. Includes Address (9) Phone (3) Email (1) See Results. 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. She was recruited as a Russian agent by journalist Andrew Rothstein in 1934, at the age of just 22. 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. Anita said: She kept it from everyone. Working so close to highly classified research, Lette had to go through a security vetting. / Burke still believes Norwood was the naive character Joan protrays. We all knew where her politics lay. As a highly trusted employee, sensitive documents crossed her desk each day. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed. 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. Melita Norwood was the daughter of a Latvian father and English mother, and had a sister and half-brother. Its just what you did she says. 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. 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. One resident, Robert Leck, 78, a former bomb disposal unit RAF corporal, recalls Lette doing the shopping at the Co-op for other elderly neighbours, visiting anyone she thought might be lonely or unwell. ''It's probably better I didn't know,'' she said. "In general I do not agree with spying against one's country.". These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. 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. 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. She told me she would have been prepared to be tried as a war criminal and would have accepted a prison sentence.. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Her spying career began four years after Joseph Stalin had seized power, long before his atrocities had become known to the outside world. in Aktuality. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and. In 2000, a parliamentary committee that oversaw intelligence agencies criticised the government for failing to prosecute Norwood. 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 Ferguson, 61, Mrs Norwood's only daughter, confirmed her mother's death, but . As early as 1938, she was nearly caught by the British. No life could have looked more ordinary. Whatever she may have done, I love her, said the mother of two. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research. Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op. [9] The film was shot in the UK. Intriguingly, it included profiles of 200 British KGB collaborators written by their Kremlin handlers. Invest in the future today. Following in her fathers footsteps, Norwood joined the Communist Party. 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 . In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Three years after being exposed, Lette sold the semi in Bexleyheath and moved to be near her daughter, renting a flat in the sheltered housing complex. Also known as Anita L Goertz, A L Ferguson. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. 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. And had a sister and half-brother this dull company name was an important involved. 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