It was a miracle. Many times Ive pored over images of the tall, polished tombstone with the Cyrillic script, and the image of his face etched on its surface, in newspaper cuttings and family photos. When its finally made clear that Ive come from England to visit the grave of my grandfather, Kim Philby, a Soviet agent who was given a heros burial somewhere on this land in the late 1980s, the old security man at the gate starts shouting, and shoos me through a private door, into the office where he regales the story to a tall man in a dark trench coat referred to as boss who in turn ushers me outside towards a brand new Range Rover with blackened windows. Inside, the atrium leading to the main sorting office and collection point is now dotted with stalls selling electronic goods, pricey mobile-phone accessories and flowers at 3 a stem. Her fourth novel, Edith and Kim, tells the linked stories of her grandfather and Edith Tudor-Hart, a Jewish photojournalist born in Vienna, who studied at the Bauhaus, married an Englishman, worked as a Soviet agent in London and introduced Kim to his Russian handler. Princess Anne is the 'perfect' example of a spare thanks to her 'sense of duty', Charles's first royal RSVP! "Kim" Philby's oldest son, has penned an extensive account of her memories of her grandfather. Shes always cast as a bit player if shes mentioned at all, but she was a remarkable woman. Eleanor found Melinda amusing but nervous and highly strung and yearning for the luxuries of Western capitalism. The committee is serving as the unwitting instrument of the KGB." Kim Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a double agent before defecting to Soviet Union in 1963. "There was one funny incident," she remembered. Perhaps he hadnt always been right. There have been endless attempts to understand how this gregarious, public-school educated English chap and his fellow Cambridge spies could have been persuaded to betray their country, and dupe their family and their friends. Two hours later, wind-battered and almost frozen solid, I finally arrive at the gates of the busy cemetery, where, hoping the guard might be able to point me in the right direction, I scrawl down my grandfathers name and the word Communist on an old tissue, and flash my driving licence. The central post office, where Kim would come every morning to pick up his mail and a stack of British and American newspapers, stands halfway up on the left. But we visited Kim in Moscow and those holidays form some of my earliest memories, so it wasnt like he was a secret. During our stay, more mourners piled in, their cries and moans ricocheting off the walls. So, too, have I seen images of his cold body decorated with medals in an open coffin, armed guards at either side, as the lavish funeral procession made its way through Kuntsevo Cemetery to this very spot. But in Russia he is still admired as a hero. Pukhova said he was a "special" and principled man. Was he wrong to have continued on the Communist path once so many others had stepped off? Kim Philby was born on January 1, 1912 in Ambala, Punjab, British India [now Haryana, India]. Prince Albert of Monaco is the first Euro monarch to confirm he and his wife Keep calm and carry on! birth date: 1912-01-01. birth place: Ambala. Prince Harry drops 45 points and Meghan Markle 36 points in just over a month in US public opinion poll Sadiq Khan faces furious backlash over plans for biggest transport and council tax rises in a decade as James Martin warns This Morning viewers why they should NEVER store their eggs in the fridge. death death: 1988-05-11. Today, standing at last at his final resting place, surrounded by ex-prime ministers and national heroes in an isolated cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow, with two perfect strangers looming behind me, Im once again reminded of quite how different he was. It was a few years after this, in 1933, that Kim went to Vienna. Aileen died in 1957, when Tommy was just 11 years old; his contact with his father was cut off as soon as the double spy defected to the USSR in January 1963. He was happy in Moscow and fulfilled by his work. As for Melinda the central figure in the circle of loyalty and secrecy, desertion and reconciliation, love and solitariness that was the human drama of Donald Macleans life she lived well into her 90s before dying in New York in 2010, silent to the end about her years with one of Britains most infamous traitors. He became more optimistic once the family was deemed fully rehabilitated and they moved to Moscow in 1955. Anthony Blunt referred to her as the grandmother of the Cambridge spies. Two years later, a Sunday Times correspondent was in Moscow and about to pack his bags after an unsuccessful attempt to interview the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, when, out of the blue, he was invited to a room in his hotel. H. A. R. (Kim) Philby, the double agent whose betrayal of his country and his social class indelibly marked British politics, has died in Moscow, officials in London said yesterday. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. His eldest son was my father, John who was himself a 19-year-old art student in 1963 when he first learnt of Kims espionage; stepping off a ferry on the Isle of Wight, he was met by a billboard stating that Kim was a wanted man. Kims case was not helped by the fact that several of his Soviet controllers including Mar, the man who recruited him had later been executed as enemies of the people. Kim leapt up and shouted, 'Whoever is rude to my wife is rude to me!' Kim Philby met his first wife the Jewess, Litzi Friedman in Vienna, and it was Friedman, a dyed-in-the-wool communist, who convinced Philby to become a fellow KGB . George Blake, who is still alive, got on well with him than with Philby. The little blue pill really is magic! He and Pukhova married in 1971, when he was 59 and she was 38. Debt-ridden couple killed their dog and then shot themselves dead with shotgun on the day they were due to Rishi Sunak says he is 'ensuring the safety of women and children' by blocking Scottish gender law as SNP Let them eat cake! She hoped Donald would now find a way of getting in touch with her. But as the author Graham Greene my grandfathers close friend and a fellow British intelligence officer, who worked under him at MI6 wrote in the introduction to Kims autobiography, My Silent War: The end, of course, in his eyes is held to justify the means, but this is a view taken, perhaps less openly, by most men involved in politics, if we are to judge them by their actions, whether the politician be a Disraeli or a Wilson. There, a porter recalled taking their luggage to a waiting car with Salzburg number plates which drove off towards Vienna. Your email address will not be published. With his brilliant mind and First from Cambridge, Maclean could bask in being the superior intellect to an under-educated, attractive woman who was both affectionate and popular, where he was withdrawn, giving nothing of himself away. Thanks Darryl.I live in Australia. One of Kims old KGB comrades, whom Id been in contact with during the course of my research for this article, told me that a gang of five or six of Kims former colleagues still meet up every month and raise a toast in his honour. Kim Philby was unmasked as a Soviet double agent in July 1963 when . The colourful characters of spymaster Gertrude Bell (the first female officer in the British Army), the legendary "Lawrence of Arabia," and the astute traitor St. John Philby (father of the notorious KGB double-spy Kim Philby) are all so dynamic that their heroics are hard to believe, but nevertheless true and soundly researched by a perceptive . This is the first time Ive ever stood at the foot of my grandfathers grave, but I know it instantly. I am going to England in July for a Filby reunion at the town Filby. children: John David Philby Josephine F. Philby Dudley Thomas Philby Miranda Philby Harry George Philby Birth. Born in 1946, Dudley 'Tommy' Philby is the third of Kim's five children with his second of four wives, Aileen Furse Philby. I turn left, according to my map, away from Kims local grocery, where a creature of habit hed collect his daily supply of bread and whatever fruit and vegetables were available. Then they boarded what was described as a small military-type aircraft which flew them to Moscow to be reunited with Donald. Charlotte Philby, 39, is a former investigative reporter and the author of three critically acclaimed spy novels. Life is good here in every way.. 1951Tips off fellow Cambridge Spy Donald Maclean that a warrant has been issued for his arrest. 1957Aileen Furse, Philbys second wife, dies. Kim was appointed head of a newly formed anti-Soviet section, and as the top Secret Intelligence Service representative, worked for several years in liaison with the CIA and FBI all along handing information straight back into the hands of the Russians. Although she would be left pitied, even censured, and alone in a country in which she had spent barely one-tenth of her life, it might be better that he should be free to live a new life in Moscow than spend a decade behind bars. In his lifetime, Kim married four times, and had five children by his second wife Aileen Furse. Amnesia in Literature and Film Lese Part of the Family gratis von Charlotte Philby Verfgbar als Hrbuch Jetzt 14 Tage gratis testen. Edith and Kim: The brilliant new historical spy novel based on the true story of the woman behind the Cambridge spies in Cold War espionage. 1963Disappears in Beirut on 23 January. Is it time Harry & Meghan accept Clarkson's apology and move on? Just five years ago, my mum and I were refused service in a shop in Arizona on account of the name on our credit cards. Rather than angrily confront Philby, the American stated he would ask with considerable satisfaction, "How do . He reported to the Soviet NKVD from the Spanish civil war under the guise of a correspondent for the Times, and in 1940 joined the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6), becoming a double agent and passing many secrets to the Kremlin. Required fields are marked *. What are you writing next?After publishing four novels in four years, Im taking more time to write the next one. By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org | Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Feeling a strong dissatisfaction with British policy in the Middle East, Kims father resigned from the Foreign Service in 1930, converting to Islam and taking the name Hajj Abdullah. The comments below have not been moderated. Being one of North Korea's elite, for the nation he was the highest profile defection since No Kum-sok (above . Men with erectile dysfunction who take Viagra are 25% less likely to Money saving guru Martin Lewis reveals easy FIRST step to clearing thousands of pounds in debt. Kim was won over by the Communist cause while a student at Cambridge University, and upon graduation in 1933, travelled to Vienna to serve the international Communist organisation Comintern which was illegal in Austria with 100 in his pocket given to him by his father, St John, who was also a Cambridge graduate. The reporter adds that Kim demonstrated an iron head for drink during the course of their subsequent meetings, which took place over a series of long, boozy meals: I could detect no change in his alertness or joviality as the waiter arrived with relays of 300 grams of vodka or 600 grams of Armenian brandy. Like my father, Kim had amazing stamina for drink; the pair of them would knock it back over games of chess at the flat in Moscow (while I ran around wreaking havoc in the living room) and on the long trips to Siberia and Bulgaria they took together. Area of responsibility extended to include North African and Italian espionage. She was an object of both pity and fascination, and to get away from it all, she moved from their house on the Kent-Surrey border to Switzerland, with her mother. But her latest article contains several interesting anecdotes, including an episode at Moscows Sheremetyevo International Airport, when Soviet airport staff scrambled frantically to work around the fact that they had accidentally scheduled [the Philbys, who were returning from visiting Kim,] on the same flight back to London as the British ambassador, who was wafting around the terminal in a pinstripe suit. Philby, though, began seeing Melinda on the side, confessing as much to his wife and saying that he was just trying to make [Melindas] life happier as she had been miserable for the last 15 years. Charlotte Philby, daughter of John Philby, H.A.R. When you look at the way Edith is referred to in the [security services] files as that foreign woman, I wonder whether theres a sense of embarrassment too. Eleanor Kearns was born in Seattle in 1914. Aileen and the children also moved to America and the Philby's took a spacious, ramshackle two-storeyed place at 4100 Nebraska Avenue. Slowly but surely, he was turning himself into one of the most cunning and treacherous double agents of all time. Rufina Pukhova, his Russian-Polish wife, said Philby struggled to control his drinking by downing only two glasses of cognac a night and then handing her the bottle to hide. I remember at the time feeling that something very dark was happening and that I didnt feel safe. As I walk towards it, the title of the Anthony Trollope novel jumps out at me: He Knew He Was Right. Getty Images In the USSR, Philby essentially became an honorary pensioner: he passed on to Soviet intelligence everything he. They even had a dacha a country cottage 20 miles from Moscow where the children could swim, fish, bicycle and forage for mushrooms. Next to articles about him online, readers routinely describe him as evil and a cancer on society. Philby's less attractive personal qualities were matched by a charm to which many of his MI6 colleagues succumbed. And here he was struck by disappointment, brought to tears. But again, it was justifiable in his mind. Kim was not nave; he knew that his ideal, like any other, was susceptible to corruption. But more importantly, every decision he made was done consciously. According to a recent piece in the Daily Telegraph: For years Philby had sabotaged Allied missions behind the Iron Curtain and had calculatedly sent dozens of agents to their deaths. Most famously, he was almost certainly responsible for the tip-off which led to the deaths of the first British-sponsored Albanians who parachuted in to remove Enver Hoxhas Communist regime. The gang of British spies who ended up in Moscow in the 1950s and 1960s were employed in KGB training schools and international research institutes. Philby had defected to the Soviet Union from Beirut in 1963, and was treated with respect, but felt isolated. When I asked my dad, shortly before he died late last year, how hed felt about his own fathers betrayal, he told me exactly what Kim had told Sayle during that interview in 1963: To betray, you must first belong. And as Kim said himself: I never belonged. My dad always had great respect for my grandfather; he told me that even when he was a child, he always knew he was up to something he just didnt know what. "I tried everything to save him; after all, he was killing himself. 1940Recruited by British Secret Services and attached to the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) under Guy Burgess. It was, in fact, those journeys to Kims flat which form some of my strongest early memories: flying down the third lane of the motorway in an unmarked car. 1925Attends Westminster School in London. The Philby talent for putting on an act has been inherited by Charlotte, in a sense: she worked in theatre as a child, training with Anna Scher, whose radical Islington theatre group has spotted such talent as Kathy Burke and Phil Daniels. A plaque in his honour was unveiled by the head of the foreign intelligence service at its headquarters in Moscow in December. He sounded in good health and expressed the strong hope that she would join him in. But no matter; allowing myself plenty of time to get lost, Im soon heading towards the apartment where my grandfather lived out the final 25 years of his life under the watchful eye of Moscow and where his widow Rufa is currently preparing an enormous spread for our afternoon tea. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Today, this pedestrianised street is only accessible by a coded gate, and the faade of the building has been tarted up almost beyond recognition. I am learning more about my family everyday.. The whole plan is being masterminded by Kim Philby in Moscow. Cambridge-educated Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby became close friends in 1940, when they were both working in separate departments of the British Intelligence . 1962George Blake is caught. Of course, if there is a conflict, the political person comes first.. This is not the first time Charlotte Philby has written in defense of her grandfathers actions. What counted though against Blunt, and Burgess too, was that they werent journo-friendly. In this article for The Independent Magazine, I returned to Moscow to discover the truth about my grandfather, the infamous Third Man. Those are the facts but there are plenty of question marks too. But the two men, for so long ideological comrades, fell out. On the eve of his 99th birthday, I spent, At Kim's flat with his partner, Rufina. 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