A writer, journalism and follower of Lenin - who formed the Communist Party in Great Britain - they were acquainted. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. Where those men hid their activities behind their upper-class backgrounds, elite educations and urbanity, Mrs. Norwood disguised hers with her complete suburban unremarkableness. Get started She said her purpose had been to keep Russia abreast.". The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. She's a very good person, very strong and totally unmaterialistic," she told The Daily Mail at the time. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. 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. 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. ''When I first saw all the details, I just felt complete disbelief,'' she said. 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). Date of death. Melita Norwood GRANNY Melita Norwood, the Soviet Union's top British spy, has died aged 93 - it was revealed last night. 00:48 GMT 19 Jul 2014. We didnt know what to think.. And the sleepy South Staffordshire . Her espionage activities weren't publicly revealed until 1999, when former archivist Vasili Mitrokhin - who. Joan also comes up with the idea of enriching uranium in the film, which is part of the process of making atomic energy. Posted on January 17, 2022 | by . She had evaded detection by playing the dutiful housewife and mother. Lettes work for the Soviets continued right up until her retirement from the company in 1972, when she was 60. 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. And how had the mole managed to infiltrate our system? Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. 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. On nights when she was delayed getting home by her appointments with her K.G.B. ''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. At the height of the war in 1943, she took time off to have a child, Anita. 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. In 2000, a parliamentary committee that oversaw intelligence agencies criticised the government for failing to prosecute Norwood. These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. Red Joan is released in cinemas on April 19, 2019. She was a traitor to her country and had got away with it for decades. She was born in Bournemouth to Alexander Sirnis, a Latvian immigrant with strong Communist ties. There were calls to prosecute the granny traitor, but the secret services did not want the details of their failure to come out at trial. 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. Until her death in 2005 . 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. Dr Burke says: She was a sophisticated spy. Through all those years, her husband, a fellow Communist Party member who died in 1985, knew she was spying for the KGB. Melita Norwood Daughter. I remember her talking to me once about Karl Marx, he says. 2023 Getty Images. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. She was an emotional Communist and quite naive. Melita Stedman Norwood ( ne Sirnis; 25 Maret 1912 - 2 Juni 2005) adalah seorang pegawai negeri Inggris dan sumber intelijensi KGB. The couple had, Its just what you did she says. Burke still believes Norwood was the naive character Joan protrays. She claims failing memory as a reason for not being able to recall the names of any of the people she dealt with. Norwoods secret finally came out in September 1999, when The Times of London began to publish Andrews book serially. It also offered her a pension of 20 a month. Key to this was research into metallurgy and this is exactly what Melita Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job. In the BBC interview for broadcast next Sunday, Mrs. Norwood explains that in addition to sympathizing with the social gains that the Soviet experiment promised, she thought that in the postwar era, the Soviet Union represented the only counterbalance to capitalism and that the West should not be allowed an advantage as great as sole possession of nuclear bombs. She began her spying career in the 1930s while working as a secretary for the Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London. 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. For her part, Lette Norwood didnt allow exposure of her treachery to ruin her Morning Star delivery routine, which continued uninterrupted. Lived In Garland TX, Duncanville TX, Dallas TX, Desoto TX. 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. Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op. Following in her fathers footsteps, Norwood joined the Communist Party. She was an emotional Communist and quite naive. ''I would not have liked to have kept such a secret.''. Untroubled by the problems of the world, and with the added comfort of her married daughter Anita living nearby, Melita Norwood enjoyed the tranquillity of the small development ringed with flowering trees, and got on with her jam-making until her death, aged 93. Norwood, who admitted passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, was exposed by Vasili Mitrokhin, who defected to Britain with a trove of KGB documents in 1992. It was incredibly valuable. Norwood was a long-time member of the Communist Party who supported the Soviet Unions attempt to bring communism to Eastern Europe and feared a world in which the United States and Western Europe held unchallenged nuclear power. The ideologically driven spy turned down a Russian pension and was never paid for her undercover work. It was directed by Trevor Nunn, [10] and produced by David Parfitt, with a screenplay by Lindsay Shapero. The reality is that Norwood was devoted to her husband, who she nursed through liver cancer up to his death in 1986. The daughter of a Latvian father and an English mother, Norwood held fiercely left-wing views from an early age. 87years (December 9, 1934) Judi Dench gives us the painful memories and rickety joints of the old Joan, tending a garden in the suburbs in 2000 when Special . I certainly didnt.. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Right to the end, Norwood maintained her belief in communism. She worked as a secretary at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, the home of the Tube Alloys project. 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 . Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. 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. 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. '' he said. Norwood would make copies then deliver them to her KGB handlers. Norwood's daughter, Anit Anita FergusonMelita Norwood / Daughter. We all knew where her politics lay. Melita (everyone called her Lette) had joined the company as a clerk in 1937. We sent soldiers there to die against Hitler. 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. 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. All of this is shown in Red Joan, but what's missing is the other work Norwood did - she was also a recruiter. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Now her double life has inspired the film Red Joan, with Dame Judi Dench co-starring in the title role. Norwood died on June 2, 2005 never facing trial for her crimes. Like many nonagenarians, Melita Norwood did her best to keep her mind active. Norwood joined Southampton University but dropped out and moved to Germany at the time of the rise of the Nazis. Incredibly, despite doubts about her extreme Left-wing sympathies and links, she was cleared. In 1958 she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, which is given for heroism in combat or long service in the armed forces. She told the newspaper that ''in the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same thing again.''. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. spy. 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". 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. But what Melita exactly did is up for debate. [9] The film was shot in the UK. Jennie Rooneys book Red Joan is inspired by the story she found but isnt based on the true story, there are quite a few differences between the two. 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. Author David Burke, who wrote a book about Melita's extraordinary life, was told by Norwood herself that it was she that approached them not the other way around. Melita Norwood was a great-grandmother when her espionage was finally revealed. 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. Her spying career began four years after Joseph Stalin had seized power, long before his atrocities had become known to the outside world. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. "In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country. How did Norwood get away with it for so long? A . Born in 1912 she was brought up with Communists, Socialists and Leninists. Norwood was coming clean because a Cambridge historian had discovered her espionage while writing a book, but she was unrepentant. ''It was a very big shock, I had no idea, no idea at all.'' 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. . 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. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. 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.. Pendant prs de 35 ans, Mme Norwood a copi et transfr vers l'Union sovitique des centaines de documents secrets sur le programme nuclaire . "Melita Norwood's relatives, friends and neighbours told [on 11 September 1999] of their shock on learning . 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. Described as the most important female agent ever recruited by the USSR, she was considered more valuable than infamous British Reds Kim Philby or Guy Burgess. 1998 In December, Mr Straw is informed for the first time heard about Melita Norwood's role and is told the Security Service was considering whether to prosecute. Her confession that sunny Saturday came as a surprise to everyone but none more than her daughter, Anita, a school lab technician. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. / When the spy was eventually unmasked half a century later in 1999, the identity came as a huge shock. I made the approach.". For Mrs Norwood was no ordinary granny. <br>Who would have thought she was a spy? Melita Norwood akhirnya meninggal dunia pada tahun 2005 tetapi orang tetap terpesona dengan kisah hidupnya. Her KGB file gave her a glowing review calling her "committed, reliable and disciplined agent, striving to be of the utmost assistance. 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. 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. Her occupation was occupation. Who is Melitta Norwood? Norwood wasn't a physicist she was a drop out from Southampton University, where she only studied Latin and Logic for a year. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research. She was perusing the archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler. Tom King, chairman of the Parliamentary Security and Intelligence Committee, promised an investigation by lawmakers, saying, ''Questions need to be asked about who knew what when, and why there were no prosecutions.''. Husband (m. 19351986). How she came to be in a position to do that is a source of great embarrassment to MI5. 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. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. 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. One said to the Sunday Mercury: "We all knew where her politics lay. 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. For other inquiries Contact Us. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. The grandmother was 87 and living in a semi-detached house in Garden Avenue when she was first unmasked in an . 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. He said in the 1960s, the security services concluded that Norwood had been a spy, but felt they had no "usable evidence" to prosecute. 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. Close. 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. 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. 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. Tony Harris - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images. Reuters. When she was finally unmasked, confessing in her garden, the public called for her to be prosecuted but Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled that dragging such an old woman into court would be inappropriate. Melita was thirty-eight years of age and Hilary was approaching his fortieth birthday. 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. Jack Straw, then Britain's home secretary, said in 1999 that superiors had become suspicious of Norwood in the 1940s. The KGBs man on the inside was in fact Melita Norwood, a grey-haired, tea-drinking woman in her eighties who enjoyed tending the roses at her semi-detached home in suburban South East London. Melitapassed away. documents by the code name ''Hola.'' Newly released files from the Mitrokhin archive make clear how vital a KGB source Norwood . In the same circumstances I know that I would do the same thing again., Christy Dignam's daughter Kiera breaks silence after devastating health update, Farmer, 71, killed by one of his own cows in farm horror, Major 200 energy credit update as Ryan delivers shock boost for households, People only realising huge Chinese takeaway hack - its a game changer, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. 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. "In general I do not agree with spying against one's country.". in Aktuality. Selama sekitar 40 tahun sejak ia direkrut pada 1937, ia memberikan rahasia- rahasia negara kepada KGB (dan . 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. 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 . And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. Judi Dench says later as a young woman she just went along with it. "It's just what you did" she says. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. anita ferguson daughter of melita norwood About; FAQ; Contacts; Location; Rose, David. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Anyone can read what you share. Experts still debate how much she actually ended up helping the Soviet nuclear program. 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. She told The Times of London that in the same circumstances, I know that I would do the same thing again.. Invest in the future today. He too was a member of the Communist Party. "But I didnt immediately think of pinching it. He founded the Southern Worker And Labour And Socialist Journal in Southampton. This afternoon she strolled in her garden at the request of photographers but refused to answer any questions. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Anita Ferguson, a school laboratory technician from Wombourne, Staffordshire, speaks to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother. Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, said she died on June 2. Dan sumber intelijensi KGB straight to you tahun 2005 tetapi orang tetap terpesona kisah! 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