Kim Philby

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby also H. A. R. Philby (January 1, 1912 – May 11, 1988) was a high ranking member of British intelligence who led a lifelong career as a spy for the Soviet Union.

Chronology

• 1912 Birth in India
• 1919 Attended Aldro preparatory school in Eastbourne
• 1924 Went to Westminster School
• 1929 Entered Trinity College, Cambridge at the age of 17 to read history.
• 1930 Guy Burgess arrived at Trinity from Eton.
• 1931 Joined the Cambridge University Socialist Society CUSS. Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald defeated 27th October. Philby became a more ardent socialist. After obtaining only a third in his history exams he transferred to economics.
• 1932 Became treasurer of CUSS.
• 1933 Left Cambridge a convinced Communist with a degree in economics, then went to Vienna where Chancellor Dr Engelbert Dollfuss was preparing the first 'putsch' in February 1934. Philby became a Soviet agent.
• 1934 Clash between the Austrian government and socialists in Vienna. On Feb 24 Philby married Litzi Friedman; then in May, after the collapse of the socialist movement in Vienna, he returned with his wife to England. He began work as a sub-editor of a Liberal monthly review, and joined Burgess as a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship. (Philby edited the fellowship's pro-Hitler magazine, supported by Nazi funds). To cover up his communist background he also made repeated visits to Berlin for talks with the German Propaganda Ministry and with von Ribbentrop's Foreign Office.
• 1937 In February Philby arrived in Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War from Franco's side. 20 May 1937 he became correspondent of The Times with Franco's forces.
• 1938 Awarded the 'Red Cross of Military Merit' by Franco personally.
• 1939 In July, left Spain and became war correspondent of The Times at the British Headquarters in Arras.
• 1940 In June, after the evacuation of British Forces from the European mainland, he returned to Britain. Recruited by the British Secret Service and attached to the SIS under Guy Burgess in Section D. Assigned to school for under-cover work, but later transferred to the teaching staff of a new school for general training in techniques of sabotage and subversion at Beaulieu, Hampshire.
• 1941 Transferred to SIS, Section V (Five). Philby took charge of the Iberian sub-section, responsible for British Intelligence in Spain and Portugal. Trained James Jesus Angelton in the arts and crafts of counterespionage.
• 1942 Married his second wife Aileen Furse. OSS group under Norman Pearson arrived in London for liaison with British Secret Service. Philby's area of responsibility grew to include North African and Italian espionage under newly formed counter-intelligence units.
• 1943 Section V moved from St Albans to London, bringing Philby closer to the centers of power.
• 1944 Appointed head of Section IX, newly created to operate against communism and the Soviet Union.
• 1945 In September Soviet intelligence officer Konstantin Volkov based at the Soviet embassy in Ankara seriously threatened Philby's position by offering to defect and provide the names of two agents working in the Foreign Office and one in SIS (probably Philby). The offer was sent to Philby as head of the Section IX, Soviet counterintelligence. Soon afterwards, Volkov was kidnapped by Soviet agents and taken to the Lubyanka in Moscow for interrogation and execution.
• 1946 Took a field appointment - officially as First Secretary with the British embassy in Turkey, actually as head of the Turkish SIS station.
• 1949 Became SIS representative in Washington, as senior British Secret Service officer working in liaison with the FBI and the newly created CIA. He occasionally visited Arlington Hall for discussions about VENONA; furthermore, he regularly received copies of summaries of VENONA translations as part of his official duties. He sat in on a Special Policy Committee directing the ill-fated Anglo-US attempt to infiltrate anti-communist agents into Albania to topple the Enver Hoxha régime.
• 1950 Guy Burgess arrived in Washington on assignment as Second Secretary of the British Embassy, and Philby invited him to stay at his house.
• 1951 Philby learnt of the tightening net of suspicion surrounding Foreign Office diplomat and Soviet agent Donald Maclean, whose British embassy position at the end of the war had placed him on the Combined Policy Committee on Atomic Energy as its British joint secretary. Burgess's alcoholism caused Ambassador Franks to remove him and he returned to England. On May 25, Burgess and Maclean disappeared from Britain, with help from Philby, having escaped via the Baltic to the Soviet Union. Philby summoned to London for interrogation and asked to resign from the Foreign Service.
• 1952 In the summer a secret trial took place in which Philby underwent questioning about his activities.
• 1955 The British Government published a 'White Paper' (report) on the Burgess-Maclean affair. On October 25, questions tabled in parliament asking about the 'third man', Philby. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, stated that no evidence existed of Philby having betrayed the interests of Britain. Nevertheless, the Foreign Service dismissed him because of his association with Burgess.
• 1956 In September British secret service arranged Philby to work for The Observer in Beirut as correspondent of and also The Economist; But that year Dick White, who suspected Philby of working as a Soviet agent, became head of SIS.
• 1957 Aileen, Philby's second wife, died.
• 1958 Married Eleanor Brewer.
• 1962 George Blake unmasked. Philby then confirmed as an identified Soviet agent.
• 1963 January 23, Philby disappeared in Beirut. The Soviet Union announced that it has granted Philby political asylum in Moscow. On March 3, Mrs. Philby received a telegram from Philby postmarked Cairo, Egypt. On June 3 Izvestia located Philby with the Imam of Yemen. On July 1, the British Government admitted that Philby had worked as a Soviet agent before 1946 and identified him as the 'third man'.
• 1965 Awarded the Order of the Red Banner, one of the highest honours of the Soviet Union.
• 1988 Death at age 76