Biography George Blake
George Blake was born in Rotterdam to a Dutch mother and an Egyptian father in 1922. During the Second World War he became a courier for the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation.
 Blake escaped from Holland in 1942 and on arriving in England joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary officer and eventually became an officer. Blake spoke several languages and during the war was involved in intelligence work. This included escorting agents into enemy-occupied Holland.
 After the war Blake was recruited into MI6 and sent to Hamburg to build up an intelligence network in the Soviet zone in Germany.
 Blake was then sent to Korea. During the Korean War Blake became highly critical of the decision by the United States Air Force to bombing unprotected villages. On 24th June 1950, Blake was captured by the North Koreans while at the British Legation. He later claimed that while he was a prisoner he read the work of Karl Marx and was converted to communism.
 Released in 1953 Blake returned to Britain as a hero. He was appointed the deputy to Tom Gimson of Y section. This involved processing the recordings of telephone intercepts of Russian diplomats and Red Army officers in Europe. In 1955 he was moved to Berlin where his task was to recruit Soviet officers as double agents. While in this post he gave the Soviets details of the 400 MI6 agents working in Germany.
 In 1959 Blake returned to London where he worked for DP4. This unit was involved in recruiting British businessmen travelling to the Soviet Union and Russian diplomats stationed in Britain.
 In 1959 Michael Goleniewski, a Polish intelligence officer, told the CIA that Soviet agents were operating in Britain. This information was passed on to MI5 and eventually this led to the arrests of Blake, Gordon Lonsdale, Harry Houghton, Peter Kroger and Helen Kroger.
 At his trial Blake was accused of supplying information to the KGB that led to the arrests of 42 MI6 agents working in communist countries. Dick White later claimed that Blake did even more harm as a double-agent than Kim Philby.
 Blake was convicted of spying in 1961 he was sentenced to 42 years, the longest prison sentence ever imposed by a British court.
 On 22nd October, 1966, Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs Prison by climbing over the wall using a rope thrown from outside. He went to the Soviet Union and was employed by the Institute for World, Economic and International Affairs.