Guy Burgess, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Guy Burgess

British-born radio producer, intelligence and Foreign Office officer and double agent

Date of Birth: 16-Apr-1911

Place of Birth: Devon, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 30-Aug-1963

Profession: journalist, spy

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Aries


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About Guy Burgess

  • Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era.
  • His defection in 1951 to the Soviet Union, with his fellow-spy Donald Maclean, led to a serious breach in Anglo-United States intelligence co-operation, and caused long-lasting disruption and demoralisation in Britain's foreign and diplomatic services.
  • Born into a wealthy middle-class family, Burgess was educated at Eton College, the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and Trinity College, Cambridge.
  • An assiduous networker, he embraced left-wing politics at Cambridge and joined the British Communist Party.
  • He was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1935, on the recommendation of the future double-agent Kim Philby.
  • After leaving Cambridge, Burgess worked for the BBC as a producer, briefly interrupted by a short period as a full-time MI6 intelligence officer, before joining the Foreign Office in 1944. At the Foreign Office, Burgess acted as a confidential secretary to Hector McNeil, the deputy to Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary.
  • This post gave Burgess access to secret information on all aspects of Britain's foreign policy during the critical post-1945 period, and it is estimated that he passed thousands of documents to his Soviet controllers.
  • In 1950 he was appointed second secretary to the British Embassy in Washington, a post from which he was sent home after repeated misbehaviour.
  • Although not at this stage under suspicion, Burgess nevertheless accompanied Maclean when the latter, on the point of being unmasked, fled to Moscow in May 1951.
  • Burgess's whereabouts were unknown in the West until 1956, when he appeared with Maclean at a brief press conference in Moscow, claiming that his motive had been to improve Soviet-West relations.
  • He never left the Soviet Union; he was often visited by friends and journalists from Britain, most of whom reported on a lonely and empty existence.
  • He remained unrepentant to the end of his life, rejecting the notion that his earlier activities represented treason.
  • He was well provided for materially, but as a result of his lifestyle his health deteriorated, and he died in 1963.
  • Experts have found it difficult to assess the extent of damage caused by Burgess's espionage activities, but consider that the disruption in Anglo-American relations caused by his defection was perhaps of greater value to the Soviets than any information he provided.
  • Burgess's life has frequently been fictionalised, and dramatised in productions for screen and stage.

Read more at Wikipedia

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