Hilary Norwood As early as 1938, she was. Norwood was the most important British female agent in the whole of the KGB's history as well as the longest-serving of all the Soviet spies in Britain. 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. It also offered her a pension of 20 a month. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images), 1268 x 1012 px (4.23 x 3.37 in) - 300 dpi - 357 KB. <br>Who would have thought she was a spy? Anita FergusonMelita Norwood / Daughter. The last time she visited Russia was in 1979, with her husband, when she says she again rejected financial reward. Anita Ferguson, 75, who lives in a small house in the West Midlands, told The Sun: She did it to help the Russian people. Anita Lynn Ferguson, 75. Required fields are marked *. Anita Ferguson, 61, Mrs Norwood's only daughter, confirmed her mother's death, but . 2023 Getty Images. 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. Dr Burke says: She was a sophisticated spy. spy. 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. The couple's daughter, Anita Ferguson, 56, a biologist living in Staffordshire, said she learned of her mother's activity from the newspaper report Saturday. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Related To Kenneth Ferguson, Cameron Ferguson, Curtis Ferguson, Separate Ferguson, Monica Ferguson. Melita Norwood akhirnya meninggal dunia pada tahun 2005 tetapi orang tetap terpesona dengan kisah hidupnya. Your email address will not be published. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and passed them to Moscow. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. In 2000, a parliamentary committee that oversaw intelligence agencies criticised the government for failing to prosecute Norwood. FOR decades the secret services were left chasing shadows in the hunt for agent Hola Russias most effective spy in Britain. Shed then pass the camera off to her contact in the KGB, who knew her by her code name Hola.. These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. The newspaper will begin on Monday to serialize a book published in Britain as ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The K.G.B. But while Norwood's intentions are still up for debate, what she did is not. 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. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Melita Norwood. Like many nonagenarians, Melita Norwood did her best to keep her mind active. One was in his office and the other at his London home. ''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. Who is Melitta Norwood? 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.. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and passed them to Moscow. ''I would not have liked to have kept such a secret.''. 09:22 GMT 28 Jun 2005, Bungling helicopter pilot blows over stadium roof injuring eight, Coles worker fights a woman allegedly trying to steal groceries, BBC Breakfast celebrates forty years of hilarious bloopers, Royal Family will find it 'impossible' to compromise with Sussexes, Ken Bruce will be joining the Greatest Hits Radio family in April, As it happened: UK Government blocks Scotland's new gender law, Russian pro-war fanatic warns Britain could be 'wiped off the map', Motorists slowly drive down snowy hill in treacherous conditions, Harrowing moment woman begs father not to kill himself, Shamima Begum never considered turning back during journey to ISIS. Melita turned down all the offers from newspapers, preferring to tell her story - for free - to her friend David Burke. Though Norwoods employers were suspicious of her ties to the Communist Party, over decades of work they never pinpointed her as a mole. Melita Norwood death. Widowed, Melita moved to Wombourne to be close to her daughter. Melita Stedman Norwood (ne Sirnis; 25 March 1912 - 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant and treasonous KGB intelligence source who, for a period after her formal recruitment in 1937, supplied the KGB (and its predecessor agencies ) with state secrets from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. After all, Norwood had actually been investigated no less than seven times, she'd even been identified as a security risk in 1965. "Melita Norwood's relatives, friends and neighbours told [on 11 September 1999] of their shock on learning . 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. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. A writer, journalism and follower of Lenin - who formed the Communist Party in Great Britain - they were acquainted. Through all those years, her husband, a fellow Communist Party member who died in 1985, knew she was spying for the KGB. When everything she had done came out in the newspapers her neighbours were stunned. ''But I suppose it's all right as long as you are getting paid for it. Who would have thought she was a spy? After that, although she wasnt arrested, she found she was no longer getting access to confidential material.. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Spy Melita Norwood (far left) pictured with her mother Gertrude, sister Gerty and half-brother Alfred Brandt. 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. 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. By the time she agreed to work for the KGB, she had been promoted and was personal assistant to the director. Get email updates with the day's biggest stories. 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 consequent contribution of atomic intelligence to the Soviet Union was incalculable, certainly big enough for the Russians to declare that she had made a valuable contribution to the development of work in this field. Melita Norwood, on the other hand codenamed Hola was a model of reliability. 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. July 21, 2020 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review, Your email address will not be published. At the age of 20, in . 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. ''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. 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. 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. 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. For 14 free days, you can have access to a world of in-depth analyses, investigative journalism, top opinions and a range of features. Norwoods secret finally came out in September 1999, when The Times of London began to publish Andrews book serially. . 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. They had one daughter: Anita Ferguson (born Norwood). Anita Ferguson Her occupation was occupation. 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In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Anita Ferguson, a school laboratory technician from Wombourne, Staffordshire, speaks to the media following the news that her 87-year-old mother. Tony Harris - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images. The great-grandmother of 87 still lives in the same, spartan south London house which she bought with her husband, a maths teacher, 50 years ago. All of this is shown in Red Joan, but what's missing is the other work Norwood did - she was also a recruiter. She told me she would have been prepared to be tried as a war criminal and would have accepted a prison sentence.. I did not want money. Melita was thirty-eight years of age and Hilary was approaching his fortieth birthday. Prosecution was considered inappropriate due to ill health and advanced years. Where in Bexleyheath did Melita Norwood live? 2023 Getty Images. Alma mater. Lettes work for the Soviets continued right up until her retirement from the company in 1972, when she was 60. It was a complete shock at the time, says Anita, now 71. It seemed as if she'd got away with it all - and there was a lot to get away with. Age. She was dressed in a wide collared lavender floral print blouse and gray tweed skirt and clutching a handwritten piece of paper with slightly trembling fingers. Nunn swiftly takes us back in time to 1938, when Joan (a gracefully convincing Sophie Cookson) was a green but genius physics student at Cambridge, grabbing onto new inspirations and expanding her political horizon while growing into her sexuality. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. We sent soldiers there to die against Hitler. Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, said she died on June 2. For example, she used Che Guevara tea mugs and habitually posted copies of the Communist Morning Star through the letterboxes of 32 of her neighbours. Still, she refuses to discuss the actual passing over of documents and refuses to say who wooed her to the KGB. Who would have thought she was a spy? 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. Asked if she had ever been frightened of being caught, she said, ''I suppose so, but I can't remember pondering it.''. 00:34 GMT 19 Jul 2014 Newly released files from the Mitrokhin archive make clear how vital a KGB source Norwood . And she had her gardening: flowers at the front, vegetables at the back. Posted on January 17, 2022 | by . Why Bother? She thought he was the best. She did say she spied, but what? Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Rose, David. The comments below have not been moderated, By Includes Address (9) Phone (3) Email (1) See Results. Joan also comes up with the idea of enriching uranium in the film, which is part of the process of making atomic energy. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. But she continued to send these secret files until the early 1970s, when she retired as a spy. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. 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 . Her motivations weren't as pure as the film suggests either. 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. But this was just a token attempt.The main story is a standard spy . Then in 1999 an extensive archive of KGB material was uncovered by a defector. The cause of death was not disclosed. 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. "In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country. Sitting in front of Max, her boss, she simply suggests using a centrifuge as causally as you would suggest having a cup of tea before turning back to her notes. I certainly didnt.. Related To Thomas Ferguson, John Ferguson, Jacob Ferguson. Key to this was research into metallurgy and this is exactly what Melita Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job. Geoffrey Levy for MailOnline He suspected she had been meeting KGB agents when she arrived back late from work, but did not know the extent of her crimes. Anak-anak. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images) Embed Save PURCHASE A LICENSE And how had the mole managed to infiltrate our system? At first she's unsure, but then we see her give in because she wants an even playing field between Russian and the USA. At firs the Security Service insisted her part in everything had been "marginal", it was a huge embarrassment. The Great-Grandmother Comes In From the Cold, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/13/world/the-great-grandmother-comes-in-from-the-cold.html. 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. [9] The film was shot in the UK. Husband (m. 19351986). Melita Norwood, codenamed Hola, was a prized spy in Moscow Passed on Britain's top nuclear secrets over a period of 35 years Her name emerged in the Mitrokhin Archive nine years after she died. what happened to melita norwood. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Is it time Harry & Meghan accept Clarkson's apology and move on? 131,-K/kg. She says she was working for the ideology not the financial reward. 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. Today brings a fresh reminder of a national disgrace, the failure to prosecute Melita Norwood for treason. Klaus Fuchs, Physicist Who Gave Atom Secrets to Soviet, Dies at 76 The New York Times. She removed items from her boss' safe, photographing details and sending them on to the Soviets, as is seen in the film. Melita Norwood was a 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. We didnt know what to think.. Dame Judy Dench stars as the KGB's longest serving British spy in 'Red Joan', Melita Norwood reads a statement in her garden, which she had lovingly tended, Judi Dench plays an older Joan Stanley, who is based on Norwood, Melita Norwood aged 87 when she faced the cameras, Sophie Cookson plays Joan Stanley, who is based on Norwood, The former British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association building in central London, Norwood read her statement, surrounded by the garden that she loved so much. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. 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. It is based on the six trunkloads of documents brought to the West by Vasily Mitrokhin, 77, the former chief archivist of the K.G.B. Mentioned only by codenames, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, of the infamous Cambridge Five, got critical mention: Burgess for not dressing tidily and being constantly under the influence of alcohol, and Maclean for his drunk spells and being not very good at keeping secrets. During that time she had handed over the country's secrets - willingly - to Russia, among them crucial information about the atomic bomb and its development. How she came to be in a position to do that is a source of great embarrassment to MI5. As a highly trusted employee, sensitive documents crossed her desk each day. 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. It's quite a shock to be told that the sweet old lady round the corner has been a K.G.B. This afternoon she strolled in her garden at the request of photographers but refused to answer any questions. Her work continued after the war and there's no question what she handed over was useful to the Soviets. 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. "I must have thought if any of the work the BN-FMRA was doing, not secret stuff, might be useful," she explained. Norwood worked tirelessly against Britain for four decades before she retired from her spy life in 1972. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. 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. The reality is that Norwood was devoted to her husband, who she nursed through liver cancer up to his death in 1986. 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. While his identity still remains unknown to the public, Norwood confessed later: "I am not going to deny itI take complete responsibility and blame.". Red Joan (2018) Ben Miles as Nick IMDb. But Cambridge Universitys Dr David Burke, who interviewed Norwood for a book about her life, The Spy Who Came In From The Co-Op, insisted last night: She was a crucial spy. Melita, suffering cancer and heart disease, died at . Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. Find the perfect melita norwood stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. Her confession that sunny Saturday came as a surprise to everyone but none more than her daughter, Anita, a school lab technician. Norwood admitted she'd sometimes be typing up notes from meetings and then "typed an extra copy" to send on. 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. "Whatever she may have done, I loved her. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. Melita Norwood Whatever she may have done, I love her, said the mother of two. Invest in the future today. The intelligence and security committee said Norwood had escaped prosecution because a junior officer in the domestic secret service MI5 decided the case was not worth pursuing. 's foreign intelligence section, who defected to the British in 1992. Lived In Garland TX, Duncanville TX, Dallas TX, Desoto TX. Melita Norwood was a member of one of those communist spy networks in America and Britain, who by guaranteeing those weapons of mass destruction threw down a challenge to America as sole superpower in the post-Second World War era. Known as ''Letti'' to her friends, she was identified in K.G.B. [10] [9] It premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Norwood was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The media were all gathered to hear what she had to say after revelations in the newspaper that day - Norwood had been a Soviet spy for nearly 40 years. 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. At the height of the war in 1943, she took time off to have a child, Anita. I thought perhaps what I had access to might be useful in helping Russia to keep abreast of Britain, America and Germany. She added that, in general, I do not agree with spying against one's country.. 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. ''When I first saw all the details, I just felt complete disbelief,'' she said. Unlike those Mata Hari-style seductresses whose treachery is based in the boudoir, Mrs Norwood was a very different kind of agent. 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. Along with the geraniums in her windows there are anti-war and nuclear disarmament stickers, and on a cupboard shelf visible through the kitchen window is a mug with Che Guevara's bearded face on it. Melita Norwood. Sir Winston Churchills wife started sending packages to support the Russians. Where those men hid their activities behind their upper-class backgrounds, elite educations and urbanity, Mrs. Norwood disguised hers with her complete suburban unremarkableness. from the crowd in her street. 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. Year old great-grandmother Melita Norwood stands outside her home in Bexleyheath, where she reads a statement to the press concerning her involment. 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. When Leo is away, Joan begins to fall for co-worker Max Davis (Stephen Campbell Moore), the man who eventually becomes her husband and Nicks father. She'd potter around the streets after her morning cup of tea, out of her Che Guevera mug, and deliver copies of the Communist Party newspaper, The Morning Star. 13:54, 18 APR 2019. Red Joan is certainly a watchable curiosity, but as a piece of political discourse, it seems strangely ham-fisted and bland. in Aktuality. Her spying career began four years after Joseph Stalin had seized power, long before his atrocities had become known to the outside world. The girl who had become bored with university life at Southampton after only a year was soon being promoted from clerk to secretary. 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. Mrs. Norwood had been obliged to confront the press gathered at her gate by disclosures of her past in The Times of London. 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.''. 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. The Russians knew how to build a bomb, but they didnt know how to build a nuclear reactor to extract the uranium. She began spying for the Soviet Union four years after Josef Stalin took power, working under the code name "Hola". Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page. pink house() 8226 She didnt draw attention to herself. '', At Dillons Newsagents, Peter Dodd, the assistant manager, said he had been surprised years ago when he first saw her orders for Communist publications. He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. ''I thought, 'Who is this nutter?' The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Melita Norwood aka Hola | Photo Credits: Green Left When asked to picture a KGB spy who smuggled nuclear secrets during the heights of the cold war, very few would imagine an 87-year-old great . Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. 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. 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. ''It's probably better I didn't know,'' she said. The couple had one child, Anita, who was born in 1943. 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. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. 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. "When she became politically active in the 1930s, Russia was seen by many people as the only nation capable of defeating the Nazis. Judi Dench gives us the painful memories and rickety joints of the old Joan, tending a garden in the suburbs in 2000 when Special . The KGB awarded her the prestigious military honour the Order of the Red Banner. "But I didnt immediately think of pinching it.
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