It came as a massive shock to her daughter and to Dr Burke, who already knew Norwood. Husband (m. 19351986). Her espionage activities weren't publicly revealed until 1999, when former archivist Vasili Mitrokhin - who. On September 11th 1999 The Times newspaper carried the front page article "Revealed: the quiet woman who betrayed Britain for 40 years. Following in her fathers footsteps, Norwood joined the Communist Party. That was the anodyne name given to Britain's nuclear weapons reseach program that is sometimes compared to the more famous American project conducted in Los Alamos, N.M. Mrs. Norwood regularly removed files from a safe after hours, copied them and turned them over to Soviet agents in meetings in the leafy southeastern suburbs where she has lived for more than 50 years. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. Red Joan is a 2018 film very loosely inspired by Norwood's life, starring Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson. Everyone liked her. 's foreign intelligence section, who defected to the British in 1992. ''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.''. Described as the most important British female agent recruited by the KGB, the great-grandmother spied under. Journalism strengthens democracy. Shes a very good person, very strong and totally unmaterialistic.. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed. We sent soldiers there to die against Hitler. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. Melita Norwood: The Soviet Union's Longest-Serving British Spy 220,739 views Mar 20, 2020 7K Dislike Share Save Biographics 2.08M subscribers Check out Business Blaze:. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. Norwood was coming clean because a Cambridge historian had discovered her espionage while writing a book, but she was unrepentant. When the spy was eventually unmasked half a century later in 1999, the identity came as a huge shock. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of 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 aged 87 when she faced the cameras ( Image: PA) Sophie Cookson plays Joan Stanley, who is based on Norwood ( Image: Nick Wall/Lions Gate) Don't Miss Norwood wasn't a. Although her father died when she was six, the family still held Left-wing views which the bright child absorbed from an early age. Anak-anak. <br> <br>1. 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. The couple had one child, Anita, who was born in 1943. 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. 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. "Melita Norwood's relatives, friends and neighbours told [on 11 September 1999] of their shock on learning . I talked to her about the spying, but she told me very little of what she had done, though she did say my father didnt approve. Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page. 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. Joan and Max go to Australia, but return to Britain at some point. Includes Address (23) Phone (7) Email (7) See Results. 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. in Aktuality. Selama sekitar 40 tahun sejak ia direkrut pada 1937, ia memberikan rahasia- rahasia negara kepada KGB (dan . 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. The British government decided nothing was to be gained from sending the "granny spy" to prison, and Mrs Norwood was left in peace at her home in Bexleyheath. 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. Melita Norwood, on the other hand codenamed Hola was a model of reliability. Her ability to understand technical material meant she was promoted to secretary to the director. files complimented her as ''a committed, reliable and disciplined agent, striving to be of the utmost assistance.'' But what Melita exactly did is up for debate. Remarkably, Dr Burke thinks Norwood enjoyed her late moment of notoriety. 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. For Mrs Norwood was no ordinary granny. 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 told the press in front of her home. 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. The cause of death was not disclosed. From World War II through the Cold War, she stole nuclear secrets from the office where she worked as a secretary and. Year old great-grandmother Melita Norwood stands outside her home in Bexleyheath, where she reads a statement to the press concerning her involment. By
Her father had fled from Russia to England and found a home here, but this meant little to Norwood. 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. Theodore Rothstein was one of the people in their group. Lived In Garland TX, Duncanville TX, Dallas TX, Desoto TX. At the height of the war in 1943, she took time off to have a child, Anita. 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So who was Hola? ''It was a very big shock, I had no idea, no idea at all.'' He suspected she had been meeting KGB agents when she arrived back late from work, but did not know the extent of her crimes. Melita (everyone called her Lette) had joined the company as a clerk in 1937. She did say she spied, but what? Only in 1965 did MI5 get wise to the risk she posed. 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Norwood was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. 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. The Russians knew how to build a bomb, but they didnt know how to build a nuclear reactor to extract the uranium. She didnt draw attention to herself. Right up to her death in 2005, Mrs Norwood never wavered from the conviction that what she did was right. "When she became politically active in the 1930s, Russia was seen by many people as the only nation capable of defeating the Nazis. 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. Date of death. Secrets of Bletchley Park: How codebreakers paved way for World War 2 victory, Ex-spy killing 'linked to unsolved murder of Brit family in the Alps', Novichok victim Charlie Rowley asks Putin's man 'did you kill my girlfriend? It was a show of compassion Russian wouldn't have shown if the tables were turned. Melita Norwood was a great-grandmother when her espionage was finally revealed. Creative Editorial Spy/Daughter Anita Ferguson 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. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), New film Red Joan tells the tale of Melita Norwood - a KGB 'man on the inside' who went undetected in Britain for almost 40 years, Melita Norwood, aka Hola, was Russia's most effective spy and wasn't unmasked until 1999, Described as 'the most important female agent ever recruited by the USSR', she is now the inspiration behind Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson's character with the pair playing her at different stages in her life, Her daughter, Anita Ferguson, defends her mother's career as a spy saying 'she did it to help the Russian people', Anita says Norwood was trying to help people and 'wasn't selfish', After joining the Communist Party, Norwood was recruited as a Russian agent by journalist Andrew Rothstein when she was just 22, The film is a glamorised version of events but there is no doubt it is based on unlikely operative Norwood, She never revealed her true identity, not even to her devoted husband Hilary (right), Despite having put millions of lives at risk, Norwood was never prosecuted for her treachery and she never expressed regret for her actions, Norwood leaked highly-classified documents that she came into contact with through her work as a secretary to the director of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, Dr Burke says that it was only when she gave the Russians information on how to safely enrich uranium that they were able to test a bomb in 1949, Dr Burke believes Norwood enjoyed her moment of notoriety, noting the moment she dressed up to address the press outside her home, Asked if the story was true, Norwood replied 'Ive been a rather naughty little girl', Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). 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