Melita Norwood
 Melita Norwood     (civil servant, spook) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 25 March 1912 Bournemouth, Dorset, UK |
| Died | 2 June 2005 (Age 93) Pokesdown, Hampshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Southampton |
| Parents | • Alexander Sirnis • Gertrude Stedman |
| Children | Anita |
| Spouse | Hilary Nussbaum |
British civil servant and Soviet spy. | |
Melita Stedman Norwood (née Sirnis) was a British civil servant and Soviet spy.
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 worked for 40 years.[1] Despite the high strategic value of the information she passed to the Soviets, she refused to accept any financial rewards for her work. She rejected the Soviets' offer of a pension,[2] and argued that her disclosures of classified work helped to avoid the possibility of a third world war involving the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union.[1][3]
Espionage
Norwood’s espionage career began in the mid-1930s as a member of the Woolwich Spy ring in London. Three of its members were arrested in January 1938 and sentenced to between three and six years in prison,[4] but Melita Norwood was not then detained. Meanwhile, a wave of purges in Moscow led the NKVD to cut back on its overseas espionage activities, and Norwood's new Soviet employers became the GRU, the Military Overseas Intelligence Service of the Soviet Union. Her Soviet handlers gave her a succession of different code names, the last being "Agent Hola".[5][6]
Her position as secretary to G.L. Bailey, head of a department at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, enabled Norwood to pass her Soviet handlers material relating to the British atomic weapons project, known at the time by the innocuous name of Tube Alloys.[7] Bailey was on an advisory committee to Tube Alloys. According to Jeremy Bernstein, Bailey was "warned about Norwood’s political associations and was careful not to reveal anything to her."[8]
In 1958, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[9]
The British security services eventually identified Norwood as a security risk in 1965, but refrained from questioning her to avoid disclosing their methods. She retired in 1972.[10] Her husband died in 1986, and Norwood said in 1999 that he had disapproved of her activities as an agent.[11]
Mitrokhin Archive
She was mentioned in MI5's Mitrokhin Archive. Norwood was well known to be a communist sympathiser. A report in 1999 claimed that British intelligence became aware of her significance only after Mitrokhin's defection; to protect other investigations it was then decided not to prosecute her.[12] The validity of "evidence" from the Mitrokhin archive is of dubious reliability - it is most probably a MI5 document plant based on their existing archives and suspicions. In any event, Norwood was never charged with an offence.[10]
References
- ↑ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20090214154511/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/444269.stm
- ↑ https://spartacus-educational.com/Melita_Norwood.htm
- ↑ Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Co-operative Limited. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/timeforspiestheo00duff/page/141
- ↑ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/melita-norwood-x2lrfkj7vm5
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080424110320/http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm47/4764/4764-02.htm
- ↑ Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Co-operative Limited. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
- ↑ 10 May 2019 "Incredible Untrue Events" Jeremy Bernstein, London Review of Books
- ↑ https://www.history.com/news/soviet-spy-melita-norwood-red-joan
- ↑ a b https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jun/28/guardianobituaries.past
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/13/world/the-great-grandmother-comes-in-from-the-cold.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071227182527/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/09/99/britain_betrayed/453652.stm
