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George Blake in Russia |
George Blake - The ‘Red spy’ who slipped over the prison wall
When double agent George Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966 it sparked an international manhunt. But while the Home Office looked to Moscow for clues, their most wanted man was hiding in a flat in Hampstead. By Richard Osley
RUNNING out of leads, stumped Home Office chiefs chasing George Blake, the double agent who famously escaped Wormwood Scrubs prison and fled to Russia, must have felt they’d hit rock bottom when a letter from the Institute of Psychical Studies hit their desks.
Already embarrassed by the ease with which Blake had been sprung from the jail in 1966, the premise of this latest offer of help, as far-fetched as it seems now, was that somehow the escapee could be tracked down in a method similar to the way water diviners search for hidden brooks and streams.
Blake could be traced within a couple of days, the institute told the Home Office.
“It would be of interest to our research into a process of locating individuals by a method of map divination (akin to water diviners) if we might include the case in our current programme of readings,” their letter in early 1966 said. “Should you feel disposed to give the method a trial we could forward us the necessary sample (a few hairs from the man’s hairbrush or a well-worn shower cap).”
Needless to say Blake was never tracked down using “water-divining”, but the idea is revealed in a batch of previously top secret documents held by the Home Office, which show the farce that evolved around his detention, escape and the worldwide hunt to find him.
The papers indicate how the prison authorities never really got to grips with handling a prisoner who had been given Britain’s longest ever prison sentence at the time – 42 years.
Blake served around five years before being sprung, not by a Soviet masterplan as was suggested at the time, but with the help of Pat Pottle, peace campaign fundraisers Michael Randle and his wife Anne, who lived in Torriano Cottages in Kentish Town, and Sean Bourke, the action man of the caper who plotted it and drove the getaway car.
The legend is almost cartoonish, a breakout of sawn-off prison bars and a rope ladder. Blake went into hiding – at one stage at Mr Pottle’s flat in Willow Road, Hampstead – before making his way to Russia hidden in a camper van. He still lives in Moscow.
A member of the secret service, he was caught releasing information about British operations to the KGB after being posted to Berlin by MI6. Blake later told how he was converted to “communism” when held abroad during the Korean War. He insisted the help he gave Britain’s Cold War rivals never led to fellow agents being executed but this fact has been disputed.
The newly-released documents, unlocked by the Freedom of Information Act, are prison files covering the time he spent in Wormwood Scrubs. They show how wardens were asked to listen in on conversations in the Scrubs’ visiting room, right down to what colour carpet his wife planned to put in the front room – described by the prison as “double entendre”.
“In a recent letter from Mrs Blake to her husband she says that she is redecorating the house and at their next meeting will bring samples of paint to show him. She then adds: ‘I shall not try to describe other colours as it is boring on paper but at least we can hold hands when I talk’,” said a prison report from 1963.
“We are wondering whether this is an attempt to pass a message. From our point of view clandestine communication between the Blakes might well be very damaging indeed.”
Mr Pottle, a member of the direct action Committee of 100, was approached by Blake in the Scrubs after his arrest during nuclear disarmament protests.
Pat Pottle, who grew up in Paddington, died from cancer in 2000. His brother George Pottle said this week: “I visited him a couple of times in the Scrubs. I had never heard that Blake had been given special treatment. Pat met him and was horrified by the length of Blake’s sentence. There were a group of them who had the same political mind who met in prison.”
The documents show Blake did get special treatment. Another file reveals concerns about the possibility of Lord Longford visiting Blake. Lord Longford, who campaigned for the release of “Moors Murderer” Myra Hindley. He was described as “unsettling”.
A recurring theme in the papers are the attempts by the authorities to decide whether Blake was planning to escape or not. Fellow prisoners went to newspapers with tales of varying levels of agitation.
Less than two years before Blake climbed over the wall, the prison was warned of a plan to land a helicopter in the grounds of the jail.
It was dismissed as movie-like by the disbelieving governor charged with looking into the claims.
“Blake’s letters to his wife tend to continue to be forward looking and uncomplaining and he devotes himself energetically to academic studies,” his report said.
“The whole thing is somewhat James Bondish.”
Blake himself played it cool whenever a newspaper raised the suggestion.
The spy himself wrote to the Home Office after one such article in The People, the Sunday tabloid, arguing that the government should be cracking down on journalists.
On prison notepaper, he wrote: “Am I throughout my prison sentence to remain at the mercy of anyone who for reasons best known to himself, spread stories about me?”
There was a stronger example when Anthony Foley, an ex-prisoner who left the Scrubs after serving time for attempted murder and kicked up a storm in a letter to the Home Office claiming Blake was “brainwashing” fellow prisoners.
“At my last Christmas dinner I sat down with seven murderers,” he said.
“But none have impressed me with their apparent danger than this man Blake, who is clearly and very cleverly indoctrinating prisoners.”
This time, Blake kept his complaints to his wife, telling her: “I am not happy at the idea that I am depicted as going about the prison like a latter day John The Baptist.”
Outside jail Blake split opinion.
While the label of traitor was never lost, a raft of letters were sent to the Home Office from the public called for calm, often pleading for a reduced sentence.
A teacher said “42 years is a savage punishment”, while another letter-writer added: “I do not see why this should be a crime in itself, to go against patriotism. Should a German have hesitated more than any other nationality to assassinate Hitler?”
In the 1990s, both Mr Pottle and Mr Randall, who had been identified as the men responsible for the jail break and had published a book, How We Freed George Blake and Why, in 1989, were charged with aiding Blake in his escape.
Following their trial in June 1991, an Old Bailey jury ignored the judge’s direction and acquitted both men on all counts. |
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