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. Dr Burke explains: At one time she was vetted again. He too was a member of the Communist Party. Despite having put millions of lives at risk, Norwood, who died in 2005 aged 93, was never prosecuted for her treachery and she never expressed regret for her actions. Paperwork about how to safely enrich uranium, which would be used in bombs, passed across his desk and was put in his safe. 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. 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. She was a traitor to her country and had got away with it for decades. 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. Through all those years, her husband, a fellow Communist Party member who died in 1985, knew she was spying for the KGB. A writer, journalism and follower of Lenin - who formed the Communist Party in Great Britain - they were acquainted. Lettes work for the Soviets continued right up until her retirement from the company in 1972, when she was 60. She has one daughter who works in a school laboratory, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Her mother, too, was a suffragette with far-Left sympathies. 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. Newly released files from the Mitrokhin archive make clear how vital a KGB source Norwood . 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. When she returned to the firm in 1944, she went to work for the director, Dr G. L. Bailey, who wanted Lette because he knew she could cope with the technical jargon. Asked if she had ever been frightened of being caught, she said, ''I suppose so, but I can't remember pondering it.''. Pada tahun 2013, penulis Jennie Rooney telah menerbitkan sebuah novel berjudul Red Joan, berdasarkan kisah kehidupan Norwood. Mrs. Ferguson said she would stand by her mother -- a great-grandmother -- ''whatever she may have done'' and voiced relief that she had not been told before. , updated 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. 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. 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. Norwoods secret finally came out in September 1999, when The Times of London began to publish Andrews book serially. 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Norwood never revealed to anyone what she was up to, not even to her Left-leaning husband Hilary, a maths teacher. Key to this was research into metallurgy and this is exactly what Melita Norwood had access to in her apparently lowly job. Norwood, who joined the Communist Party in the 1930s, had access to British atomic secrets through her office job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, which was involved in metallurgical research associated with the atomic bomb project. Posted on January 17, 2022 | by . She was perusing the archives of 20th-century intelligence under the guidance of Professor Chris Andrew, MI5s official chronicler. 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. While three of the gang were uncovered, she escaped discovery and took up a job as a secretary at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in the same year. The daughter of a Latvian father and an English mother, Norwood held fiercely left-wing views from an early age. Related To Kenneth Ferguson, Cameron Ferguson, Curtis Ferguson, Separate Ferguson, Monica Ferguson. 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. "She thought of Stalin in those early days as a sort of Clement Attlee figure. Known as ''Letti'' to her friends, she was identified in K.G.B. She was born Melita Sirnis in 1912 near Southampton, the daughter of an English mother and a Latvian father who was a follower of Leo Tolstoy. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Intriguingly, it included profiles of 200 British KGB collaborators written by their Kremlin handlers. In 2000, Joan is arrested and charged with espionage. 87years (December 9, 1934) Her lofty motivations are a far cry from Norwood's deliberate choices. Right to the end, Norwood maintained her belief in communism. Spy Melita Norwood (far left) pictured with her mother Gertrude, sister Gerty and half-brother Alfred Brandt. 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. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. One was in his office and the other at his London home. Norwood died in 2005, but people have remained fascinated with her story. 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. 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. 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. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. 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. A . "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. I remember her talking to me once about Karl Marx, he says. ''It was a very big shock, I had no idea, no idea at all.'' Members of her family didnt know what was going on at all. Incredibly, despite doubts about her extreme Left-wing sympathies and links, she was cleared. I just wanted Russia to be on equal footing with the West, she told the media crowding at her front door in 1999 after being publicly exposed, before politely closing it. Lived In Woodbridge VA, Cranberry Township PA, Mentor OH, Aurora IL. In real life, Norwood was a Communist from an early age. For Mrs Norwood was no ordinary granny. 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. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. ''I would not have liked to have kept such a secret.''. These usually ended so late that she stayed overnight. Then in 1932, Norwood, now 20, began work in the clerical department of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (BN-FMRA). Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. 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 next four decades saw her hand over secrets and files under the name of Agent Hola. When her activities became publicly known in 1999, Norwood had 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 a health service. It was her appointment at the research facility that gave her the access she needed. In general, I do not agree with spying against ones country. It came as a massive shock to her daughter and to Dr Burke, who already knew Norwood. Melita Stedman Norwood (ne Sirnis) (25 March 1912 - 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant and KGB intelligence source who, for a period of about 40 years following her recruitment in 1937, supplied the KGB (and its predecessor agencies) with state secrets from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association . what happened to melita norwood. She had been working for five years in the general office of the British Non Ferrous Metals Research Association in Euston, North London when her career in espionage first began. Joan Staley, the film, TV and stage actress died 24 November at the age of 79. Norwood admitted she'd sometimes be typing up notes from meetings and then "typed an extra copy" to send on. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. Behind this dull company name was an important firm involved in vital research.
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