A Spy Named Orphan by Roland Philipps

Author:Roland Philipps
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

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Away from the increasing stresses and evasions of Cairo, Donald Maclean was once again the relaxed family man on holiday in Italy, playing tennis, drinking in moderation and enjoying the company of his wife and sons. The family returned to Egypt in July 1949, the Helouan trip and his drunken attack on Melinda seemingly forgiven, although with Melinda understandably harbouring grave concerns about the effect that the stress in his life was having on his drinking. The family spent most of the rest of the Egyptian summer in Alexandria, where the Embassy decamped to escape the unbearable heat and dust of Cairo. It was soon after they had returned to the capital in September that both the global and the personal combined into an agonising and squalid spiral downwards to the lowest point of his life, a vortex of shame and fear.

Maclean was already feeling isolated as a result of Moscow Centre’s neglect compared to the heady espionage days of Washington, while Melinda’s increasing self-confidence and enjoyment of her own life was proving very hard for him in a marriage where he had been used to relying on his intelligence, reputation and charm to be the dominant figure in their relationship. Moreover, she was receiving “pressing attention” from a wealthy princeling of King Farouk’s house, Prince Daoud, which led to an increasingly independent and high-flying social life much encouraged by her sister Harriet as an outlet from the mounting difficulty of being married to Donald.

The realisation in early September that the Russians had carried out their first nuclear test five days earlier, years ahead of expectation, caused consternation in the West, following closely as it did the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists by Mao Tse-tung’s Communists in China. War crept a little closer. Maclean’s time on the AEC in the early nuclear days must have been in his mind as he worked on the evacuation plans, drafting a top-secret telegram to the Foreign Office on 27 August headed “Evacuation in case of war.” But it was not until later in the autumn that he could have had an inkling of the circlings of Venona and the potential exposure of his secret life.

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In early October, Peter Dwyer introduced his successor as MI6 representative in Washington to Robert Lamphere. The FBI man had previously been told by Dwyer that he would be meeting an extremely bright and senior operative, who would probably be head of the service one day. In the context of what Venona had just uncovered, spies in Los Alamos and now in the British Embassy, it was vital to have such a good mind on the case. Lamphere was accordingly surprised to be shaking hands with a “seedy” figure with “loose-fitting and shabby clothes.” It was his first introduction to Kim Philby. Philby, who was renowned for his charisma, managed to make their meetings so painfully boring that it was a relief when he suggested they became monthly and with another FBI colleague present, rather than weekly and one to one, as they had been with Dwyer.

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