Staff member of British queen was a Russian spy
Documents from the British secret service MI5 reveal that Anthony Blunt, an art historian and supervisor of the official Royal Art Collection, was actually a member of the notorious spy organisation Cambridge Five, and that he fell through in April 1964 and confessed who he really was. He was a Soviet spy, but it was not until 1973 that the British Queen was made aware of this.
The fact that one of her staff was a Russian spy in Britain reportedly did not upset the queen. She reacted remarkably calmly to the news at the time.
By the way, years earlier, then director-general of MI5 Michael Hanley urged the palace to cut all ties with Blunt. However, that did not happen. Moreover, Blunt remained in post and was even knighted after his confession. ‘Only Lieutenant Colonel Martin Charteris, the Queen's private secretary, and his deputy, Philip Moore, know about it at the palace,’ Hanley wrote in November 1972. ‘Charteris thought the Queen did not know and he saw no advantage in telling her, it would only make her more worried.’
Russian spy Anthony Blunt eventually died in 1983 at the age of 75.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: Daily Mail - BBC/Illustration: Unsplash)