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Last updated 29 July 2007 |
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Sonia the housewife who
spied for Russia |
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Madeline
#6999 and Geoffrey
Greathead #5063 spent their first year of married life with a Russian
spy. Years later Madeline wrote up her story and I have been privileged
to receive a copy and have been given permission to publish it here.
The picture is of Sonia when Madeline
knew her |
| In
the early days of our marriage in June 1949 houses were hard to get so we
answered an advert in the Oxford Mail for a flat to let. Having got it we
moved in with Mr. & Mrs. Beurton as we new them by that name then. It
was at The Firs a farmhouse in Great Rollright a small village a few miles
from Chipping Norton. Mrs. Beurton told us that she was a German Jew her
family were early refugees who left Germany to get away from Hitler. Her
father was welcomed as a distinguished Economist. Len her husband was
English born at Welling City Garden London |
| When
we had settled in Ruth asked if I would like to help her with some
housework as she was busy typing, she said she was doing some translating
for the government. (But never said which government?). Ruth typed most
days but you never found any scraps of paper, everyday it was burnt in the
yard and was never left until it was all gone. We were never allowed into
the cellar where later we learned that the radio was kept. |
| After
a time we began to feel suspicious as there was quite a few callers, she
would ask me if I minded looking after her children Peter and Nina while
she went to London (which she did quite often) and she would leave a list
of names saying “if any of these men called to let them in and leave
them to make themselves at home” |
| One
day Ruth asked me if I would help her with some pressing as she was
returning to Germany the next day to claim her father’s estate, she took
Nina and Peter with her Len could not go as he had a broken leg, he
followed later. We did not stay too many weeks longer as we managed to
rent a house in Chipping Norton. |
| That
was in 1950 and we had lived there for just over a year. |
| We
would talk about our suspicions but folk would look at you as though it
was all made up, but we used to joke with our girls that we used to live
with a spy. |
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Some
years later a friend sent us a cutting out of The Sunday Times it said The
Housewife Who Spied For Russia and we were amazed to see Ruth and Lens
picture also her Father and brother all spies. and although it said she
lived in the Cotswold it didn’t say where. I wrote to the paper asking
if she had lived at the Firs in Great Rollright and did she have sons
Michael Peter and a daughter Nina. They replied that it must be the same
as you wouldn’t get two backgrounds so alike but at that time could
offer no proof. So that was that for a time, until one Sunday afternoon we
had a visit from a man who said he was Chapman Pinchers the writers son
and that he was doing some research for his father for a book he was
writing Too Secret Too Long. He explained that after so many years the
government release information, at last we were to know that our
suspicions were right. Ruth as we knew her was a top spymaster codename
Sonia or Sonja as sometimes spelt. She received the Order of the Red
Banner twice and rose to be a Colonel. |
|
Before
coming to England she worked as a spy in Poland then China and in 1938
Switzerland where she tried to recruit British veterans of the Spanish
civil war. She was successful in two Alexander Foote and Len Beurton. It
was suggested by Moscow that she marry one of them to obtain a British
passport and she chose Len, she had a son Peter with him. When they came
to England Len went into the R.A.F. where he was able to get plans of
different plane parts which was copied and then transmitted to Moscow. |
| Ruth
played the part of a harassed mother and housewife while her husband was
in the forces, while in fact she radioed a lot of top secret information
of Military, Technical and Political nature to Moscow. She penetrated the
British War Cabinet The R.A.F. and American Office of Strategic Services.
She transmitted the Secrets of the Atomic bomb to Moscow it was passed to
her by Klaus Fuchs who worked at Harwell he was later imprisoned for 9
years |
| Ruth’s
main agent in Britain was her brother other agents included her husband
her father who reported his conversations with Sir Stafford Cripps who was
in the war cabinet, war correspondents in London who gave her valuable
military information |
| Ruth’s
cover was perfect she smuggled radio parts in her baby’s teddy bear and
once convinced police that her transmitter was her son’s toy. |
| Ruth’s
career ended when Alexander Foote an agent she had recruited for the KGB
re-defected to the West. |
| When
MI5 agents finally questioned her she convinced them that she was a loyal
British subject |
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Her
main role was to service and transmit messages from a mole inside MI5 the
man experts believe to have been Sir Roger Hollis. Her visit from MI5
agents resulted in no action being taken The house was never searched and
Roger Hollis is believed to have told agents to leave it alone? |
| I
have been interviewed for some news programs and also newspapers and even
by a German TV crew. |
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| We
learnt many things from the Chapman’s also from Jeff Meade who filmed
and interviewed me. |
| Ruth
died in July 2000 aged 93 She did
show me
how to make ice
cream and sponge cakes. |
| Sonia
died on 7 July 2000 in Berlin, she was 93. She was survived by her
three children, five grandchildren and three sisters as was recorded in
the New York Times of 23 July
2000 |
