Newly released files from MI5 reveal that Queen Elizabeth II was not told for almost a decade that one of her closest advisors had admitted to being a Soviet spy. Art historian Anthony Blunt had been Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, looking after the official Royal Art Collection, and in 1964 he admitted that he had been a Soviet agent since the 1930s. Although Blunt had confessed to MI5 that he had spied for the Russians during World War II, the Queen herself was not told for nine years. When informed in the 1970s, she was described as being unflappable and taking it “all very calmly and without surprise.”
Blunt was initially suspected in 1951 when fellow spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean fled to the Soviet Union. Blunt had been a close friend of Burgess since their time together at Cambridge in the 1930s as part of the so-called Cambridge Five group of spies. After Blunt denied espionage in 1951, he worked for MI5 during World War II but was interviewed 11 times by the Security Service after 1951. It wasn’t until April 1964 that Blunt was confronted by MI5 interrogator Arthur Martin who promised him immunity from prosecution. In his full confession, Blunt admitted to acknowledging his wartime work and being in touch with the Russian Intelligence Service after the war.
Despite Blunt’s prominent position, few people outside of MI5 were told of his confession. Blunt was stripped of his knighthood and his past was finally exposed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a Commons statement in 1979. He died in 1983. Other documents released by MI5 reveal that Cambridge spy Kim Philby admitted that he would have done it all again. Dirk Bogarde, the film star, was warned by MI5 that he could be the target of a gay “entrapment” attempt by the KGB and MI5’s top interrogator was baffled by Philby, not being able to determine whether he was a Soviet spy.
MI5 is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and releases its archives as it chooses, although some files are partially redacted. Some of the documents released in the latest batch will feature in a forthcoming exhibition at the National Archives. The Director General of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, said: “While much of our work must remain secret, this exhibition reflects our ongoing commitment to being open wherever we can.
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