Philby, Kim

Philby, Kim (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), 1912–88, British double agent, son of Harry St. John Bridger Philby, studied Trinity College, Cambridge. A longtime high-ranking member of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, his positions included head of the anti-Soviet section and later chief liaison between the British and American intelligence services. During his time at British intelligence, Philby worked as a Soviet spy. He came under suspicion when two of his close associates, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, defected to the USSR in 1951, but Philby's activities were not fully exposed until he himself defected in 1963.

See his autobiography, My Silent War (1968); P. Knightley, The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby (1989); G. Borovik, The Philby Files (1995); A. C. Brown, Treason in the Blood (1995); B. Macintyre, A Spy among Friends (2014).

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