melita norwood daughter, anita ferguson

She was an emotional Communist and quite naive. As the news of Norwoods espionage broke in The Times, Norwood held a press conference to confirm that she was a spy and explain why shed done it. Universitas Southampton. spy. Rose, David. 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 . She wasnt like the Cambridge Five, who courted disaster. She removed items from her boss' safe, photographing details and sending them on to the Soviets, as is seen in the film. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. It was not that side I was interested in. It was directed by Trevor Nunn, [10] and produced by David Parfitt, with a screenplay by Lindsay Shapero. He said in the 1960s, the security services concluded that Norwood had been a spy, but felt they had no "usable evidence" to prosecute. Though Norwoods employers were suspicious of her ties to the Communist Party, over decades of work they never pinpointed her as a mole. She had links with a spy ring working for the Soviets in the Woolwich Arsenal, and three other agents were caught by MI5 and imprisoned. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. 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. 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. For her part, Lette Norwood didnt allow exposure of her treachery to ruin her Morning Star delivery routine, which continued uninterrupted. I did not want money. 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. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. 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. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. 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). Her handler described her as a loyal, trustworthy, disciplined agent who passed to the KGB a large amount of vital data. Something went wrong, please try again later. Alma mater. Judi Dench 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. 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. Only in 1965 did MI5 get wise to the risk she posed. Joan Staley, the film, TV and stage actress died 24 November at the age of 79. At firs the Security Service insisted her part in everything had been "marginal", it was a huge embarrassment. ''But she was just the normal grandmother who came in once a week to pay her bill. She'd leave them somewhere to be picked up or handed them over at a meet-up. She connects with her former Communist lover Leo who encourages her to hand over secrets to the Russians. Her father died when she was six, but her mother was active in leftist causes, instilling in her children strong sentiments against all war and sympathy for countries like Germany that the family viewed as victims of warfare. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. documents by the code name ''Hola.'' [9] The film was shot in the UK. 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. The cause of death was not disclosed. five years later, saying only, ''Somebody said that my work might be an interesting source of material.'' They had been married for 50 years when he died in 1986. It was a show of compassion Russian wouldn't have shown if the tables were turned. And the sleepy South Staffordshire . 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 also offered her a pension of 20 a month. "Melita Norwood's relatives, friends and neighbours told [on 11 September 1999] of their shock on learning . 1999, 22 April Mr Straw is told that the Attorney General had advised against prosecution as it would be "inappropriate". ''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 read in a firm voice. 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. Where in Bexleyheath did Melita Norwood live? She had evaded detection by playing the dutiful housewife and mother. Hilary Norwood Norwood joined Southampton University but dropped out and moved to Germany at the time of the rise of the Nazis. ''I would not have liked to have kept such a secret.''. Known as ''Letti'' to her friends, she was identified in K.G.B. ''It's probably better I didn't know,'' she said. These documents revealed Norwoods espionage, but British officials kept it secret because they didnt think there was enough evidence to prosecute. Her occupation was occupation. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Union's longest-serving British spy. 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. Until her death, on 2 June at the age of 93, she began her days with the Today programme. In 1999, an 87-year-old British woman held a press conference in front of her home to announce that for nearly four decades, shed worked as a spy for the Soviet Union. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Union's longest-serving British spy. They were a middle-aged professional couple with a fixed mortgage, presumably beyond reproach. 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. Her name has been changed and the story sexed up, but there is no doubt it is based on unlikely operative Norwood. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research. She thought what she was doing was for the benefit of the entire world. Resides in Fairfax Station, VA. Towards the end of the war, it was carrying out highly classified government research into the properties of uranium, as part of Britains atomic bomb project. When the spy was eventually unmasked half a century later in 1999, the identity came as a huge shock. Still, she refuses to discuss the actual passing over of documents and refuses to say who wooed her to the KGB. Invest in the future today. Daughter of Alex Sirnis and Private Wife of . 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. 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. 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. There were several cries of ''traitor!'' We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Legacy Six years later, Melita Norwood died of cancer and heart disease at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, on June 2, 2005. The daughter of a Latvian father and an English mother, Norwood held fiercely left-wing views from an early age. "Whatever she may have done, I loved her. Her handlers were top Soviet spies Ursula Kuczynski, aka Red Sonja, and playboy Gordon Lonsdale, who was jailed in 1961 for espionage. Well, she was partly aided by the boys club atmosphere of MI5, the British Security Service. Her espionage activities weren't publicly revealed until 1999, when former archivist Vasili Mitrokhin - who. Geoffrey Levy for MailOnline To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Anak-anak. If you want to learn more about this . She was an emotional Communist and quite naive. 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. 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. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. Image of spy Melita Norwood opening Norwood Labs at Greenwich University in 1993. Pada tahun 2013, penulis Jennie Rooney telah menerbitkan sebuah novel berjudul Red Joan, berdasarkan kisah kehidupan Norwood. Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page. Monday, 13 September, 1999, 17:35 GMT 18:35 UK, The BBC's Jon Silverman: "At the outbreak of war she was more highly valued than Kim Philby", Nigel West, Intelligence Expert: "Such individuals should be pursued", Journalist David Rose: "The people that she lives among have not a clue as to her past", ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Selama sekitar 40 tahun sejak ia direkrut pada 1937, ia memberikan rahasia- rahasia negara kepada KGB (dan . Her confession that sunny Saturday came as a surprise to everyone but none more than her daughter, Anita, a school lab technician. Through all those years, her husband, a fellow Communist Party member who died in 1985, knew she was spying for the KGB. Anita Ferguson, 61, Mrs Norwood's only daughter, confirmed her mother's death, but . 93-year-old spy still keeping war secrets - BBC News Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. In 1996, the government decided that the information in the Mitrokhin papers should be available to the public, and handed them over to the Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew so he could write a book about them. Straw said: "She had not in practice had authorized access to government secrets after 1949," and her security clearance was revoked in 1951. We cannot guarantee accuracy of data published on this website. This traitor in our midst had handed over nuclear bomb-related documents so highly classified that most of the Cabinet did not know they existed. Which substance has the highest temperature? only confirmed she was a spy in the 1990s. 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. In 2013, author Jennie Rooney published a novel, Red Joan, loosely based on Norwoods life. Anita Ferguson, the daughter of Melita Norwood, "has spoken of her distress at discovering the double life led by her mother throughout her childhood." She was characterized as a "disciplined and Anita Ferguson, a school laboratory technician from Wombourne, Staffordshire, speaks to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother. <br> <br>'Red Joan': the film vs the facts. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. With fish fingers on the side. Melita, suffering cancer and heart disease, died at . 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. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. 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. They had one daughter: Anita Ferguson (born Norwood). Lived In Woodbridge VA, Cranberry Township PA, Mentor OH, Aurora IL. It was incredibly valuable. She says he disapproved of her spying, but "never tried to stop me". He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. Home Secretary Jack Straw has asked Britain's internal Security Service, M.I.5, for a full report on the case, but a Home Office spokeswoman said today that the Government would have no comment on the other names emerging. In 1979, she and her husbandwho knew about her spying and disapprovedvisited Moscow so the Soviet Union could award her the Order of the Red Banner (she accepted the honorary award, but turned down the financial reward). She added, ''In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country.''. The couple had one child, Anita, who was born in 1943. Norwood would make copies then deliver them to her KGB handlers. Anyone can read what you share. ''In the war the Russians were on our side, and it was unfair to them that they shouldn't be able to develop their weaponry.''. Her ability to understand technical material meant she was promoted to secretary to the director. Also known as Anita A James, Ferguson Anita. Anita Ferguson, the daughter of Melita Norwood, "has spoken of her distress at discovering the double life led by her mother throughout her childhood." His occupation was Yes. Why Bother? It was her refusal to get drawn into the glamorous side of being a mole, unlike Philby from the Cambridge University set, that allowed Norwood to evade detection. 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. Dr Burke explains: At one time she was vetted again. Melita Norwood was a great-grandmother when her espionage was finally revealed. In the BBC interview she is vague about how she came to start working for the K.G.B. She has one daughter who works in a school laboratory, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. She married chemistry teacher Hilary Norwood (formerly named Nussbaum), also a Communist, in 1935, and two years later they bought the house on Garden Avenue where she would live for the next 65 years. But to the neighbours in Garden Avenue, Bexleyheath, a pleasant street of semis and discreet net curtains, Lette was viewed as a charming old lady who just happened to be a bit eccentric and very openly Left-wing. 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". 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. 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. 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 . 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. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. "Granny spy" Melita Norwood has died at the age of 93, her daughter has confirmed. 09:21 GMT 28 Jun 2005 The KGB awarded her the prestigious military honour the Order of the Red Banner. "In general I do not agree with spying against one's country.". But what Melita exactly did is up for debate. Her father had fled from Russia to England and found a home here, but this meant little to Norwood. The girl who had become bored with university life at Southampton after only a year was soon being promoted from clerk to secretary. As early as 1938, she was. Her motivations weren't as pure as the film suggests either. She told me she would have been prepared to be tried as a war criminal and would have accepted a prison sentence.. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. Her work continued after the war and there's no question what she handed over was useful to the Soviets. As early as 1938, she was nearly caught by the British. 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. She was perusing the archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler. Akce tdne. 2023 Getty Images. handlers, she said, she would blame it on traffic tie-ups -- an excuse he accepted though he knew it to be sham. 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. 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. Except for one thing she worked at the British NonFerrous Metals Research Association offices in Euston, central London. In 1967, she recruited a British civil servant 'Hunt' who passed on secrets about arms sales for nearly 15 years. 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. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital.! 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