Amazing secret papers reveal how late Queen was kept in dark for 10 years about Russian spy infiltrating royal household

QUEEN Elizabeth II was kept in the dark for a decade about a Russian spy who infiltrated her household and was one of her most senior advisers, according to newly released MI5 files.

In 1964, Sir Anthony Blunt, the surveyor of the late Queen’s pictures and distinguished art historian, finally confessed he had been a Soviet agent since the 1930s.

He had been recruited when he was a young student at Cambridge and was a member of the most notorious spy ring of the 20th century, the Cambridge Five.

As a senior MI5 officer during World War Two, Blunt had passed vast quantities of secret intelligence to his KGB handlers.

MI5 and the Government allowed him to maintain his position at the heart of the British establishment amid fears of a major scandal if he was sacked and the truth became public.

When the Queen was finally told the full story in the 1970s, she took it “all very calmly and without surprise”.

The tale is revealed in declassified MI5 files released to The National Archives in Kew, West London.

The decision to finally tell the Queen in 1973 came after Blunt became seriously ill with cancer and they were worried that journalists would reveal the truth after his death.

In February 1973, Prime Minister Edward Heath gave instructions to Sir Martin Charteris, the Queen’s private secretary, to inform the monarch.

On March 19, MI5 director ­general Michael Hanley reported that the Cabinet Secretary Sir Burke Trend had shown him a “personal manuscript letter” from Sir Martin confirming she had finally been told.

Hanley noted: “Charteris wrote that he had spoken to the Queen about the Blunt case.

“She took it all very calmly and without surprise.” He also suggested that the Queen had always had her suspicions about Blunt.

Hanley said: “Obviously somebody mentioned something to her in the early 1950s, perhaps quite soon after her accession.”

Earlier in the year, Hanley had gone to Buckingham Palace and spoken to Sir Martin to urge that all ties with Blunt be severed.

Sir Martin, however, refused, saying there was little point as Blunt’s position was drawing to a close anyway.

Hanley reported: “Charteris thought the Queen did not know and he saw no advantage in telling her about it now; it would only add to her worries and there was nothing that could done about him.

“Contrary to what Blunt may have said in the past, Charteris affirmed that the Queen was not at all keen on Blunt and saw him rarely.”

The files seem to suggest that contact between MI5 and the palace over Blunt had been sporadic despite his confession in 1964.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home, PM in 1963 and 1964, was also not informed of Blunt’s admission.

Blunt was finally unmasked by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a Commons statement in 1979. He died in 1983 aged 75 having been stripped of his knighthood.

The files are being released ahead of the opening in the spring of a major new exhibition called MI5: Official Secrets, focusing on the work of the home security service.

It is the first time in MI5’s 115-year history that it has collaborated on an exhibition in this way.

Exhibits going on show at the National Archives will include a report of Blunt’s interview in which he finally owned up after MI5 officer Arthur Martin confronted him with testimony from Michael Straight, a young American Blunt had recruited to work for the Russians in the 1930s.

Also included in the collection will be the first-hand account of Kim Philby’s confession in 1963, papers related to the past activities of the Cambridge spy five and MI5’s interest in the actor Dirk Bogarde.

Director general of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum said: “We are pleased to partner with The National Archives to share our history through MI5: Official Secrets.

“While much of our work must remain secret, this exhibition reflects our ongoing commitment to being open wherever we can.”

Mark Dunton, historian at The National Archives and curator of MI5: Official Secrets, said: “The joy of the MI5 files are that many can be read as though they were a gripping spy novel.

“The difference is that these are the authentic, official records which give us rich layers of detail about famous espionage cases.”

The documents, released under the Official Secrets Act, also reveal that the perfect spy during World War Two would have been neither too short, nor too tall — as both stand out too much.

The note reveals other ideal qualities sought after in a so-called watcher in 1939 — just as Britain’s war against the Nazis was beginning.

Ideal qualities

At that time, the Secret Service was looking for men who could discreetly follow suspects and report back on what they were up to.

The job, new recruits were told, was not as simple as wearing a trench coat, a trilby and a fake moustache like in the movies.

In fact, pretend facial hair was actively discouraged, with readers warned: “The use of facial disguise is not recommended.

“It may be considered essential in Secret Service films but in practice it is to be deplored.

“A false moustache or beard is easily detected, especially under the high lights of a restaurant, pub, or in a tube train.”

The document continues: “The ideal watcher should not be more than 5ft 7ins, or 5ft 8ins in height, looking as unlike a policeman as possible.

“It is a mistake to use men who are too short as they are just as conspicuous as tall men.

“A watcher should be of rather a nondescript type: good eyesight is essential, also good hearing, as it is often possible to overhear a suspect’s conversation.

“He should be active and alert, as it frequently occurs that a suspect hastily boards, or alights from, a fast-moving vehicle.

“Above all a watcher must be a quick thinker, capable of acting on the spur of the moment.

“A watcher must adapt himself to the locality in which he is called upon to keep observation, eg he must wear old clothes, cap, muffler etc in the slum quarters, and be better dressed for the West End where he frequently has to enter hotels, blocks of residential flats or office buildings.

“In short, it is the watcher’s job to carry on in such a manner as not to bring undue notice to himself from local residents.”

ANTHONY BLUNT

DURING the Blitz, Anthony Blunt was the assistant to the chief of counter-intelligence at MI5.

He was recruited as a Soviet agent at Cambridge University in the 1930s before becoming an art historian.

Blunt confessed to being a double agent in 1964 and was exposed in 1979 by then PM ­Margaret Thatcher.

GUY BURGESS

BRITISH diplomat Guy Burgess started supplying information to Russia in 1936 during his time at the BBC.

In 1951, he fled the UK after being recalled from his position at the British embassy in Washington.

Five years later, alongside Maclean, he said in a press meeting they had been living in Moscow as communists.

KIM PHILBY

JOURNALIST Kim Philby was recruited to MI6 by Guy Burgess, where he became head of counterespionage operations during World War Two.

In 1949, Philby was sent to Washington to become MI6’s chief liaison officer between Britain and the US.

He was relieved of his duties in 1951.

He later fled to the Soviet Union in 1963.

DONALD MACLEAN

DONALD Maclean started feeding information to the Soviets in 1934, during his time at the Foreign Office.

It is understood he supplied Russia with secrets in relation to Nato’s creation.

He fled to Russia in 1951 alongside Burgess, after the pair were warned by Philby that counterintelligence were closing in on the pair.

HOW TO LIFT AND LET DIE..

By JULIA ATHERLEY

A TEN-page booklet on how to covertly follow a suspect was distributed to all MI5 members in the war.

Called Observation, it features the suspect as a man in a fur coat and top hat smoking a cigar, and uses rhyming couplets like a kids’ book.

One drawing says to sprint up stairs if the target gets in a small lift, another two detail how to tail him using an accomplice if needed.