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John CairncrossBritish intelligence officer
Date of Birth: 25.07.1913
Country:  Great Britain |
Content:
Biography of John Cairncross
John Cairncross was a British intelligence officer during World War II, who also worked for Soviet intelligence. He was widely suspected to be the fifth member of the "Cambridge Five" until he was exposed by Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky in 1990.
Early Life and Career
Cairncross attended Cambridge University before joining the Foreign Office. In 1937, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1942, he joined MI6, where he had access to cryptographic technology. While working at the secret intelligence center, Bletchley Park, he gathered information and passed it on to the USSR. According to Oleg Gordievsky, "Scottish-born John Cairncross worked in counterintelligence and had a lot of intercepts of German messages. Although the British themselves provided military information to the Soviet Union, Cairncross secretly passed on the information they did not want to share, along with his recruited agent in the interception department, Leo Long."
Exposure and Aftermath
In 1951, after evidence was presented by MI5, Cairncross confessed to working for the USSR. However, he was not prosecuted, which later led to accusations that the government was covering up its role as a secret accomplice. The identity of the fifth member of the "Cambridge Five" remained unconfirmed until 1990, when KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky pointed to Cairncross.
After his confession, Cairncross relocated to Rome, where he worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations until his retirement. He then moved to the south of France, where he passed away in 1995.
