Key Figures in Espionage by Bayard & Holmes

Author:Bayard & Holmes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shoe Phone Press

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John Cairncross

The One That Got Away

John Cairncross is known as “The Fifth Man,” as he was the fifth of the Cambridge Five to be publicly identified. He was the actual working class man of the Cambridge Five—the only one from the class of people that Soviet communism claimed to be all about. Unaware that his despised Cambridge classmates were fellow spies, Cairncross fed information to the Soviets on everything from Nazi movements during WWII to German SS personnel files to the details of how NATO would be organized and funded. Unlike three of those despised Cambridge Five classmates, Cairncross never did experience the joys of the Soviet “workers’ paradise.” Instead, he became a revered professor at universities in the United States.

Remind us sometime to tell you about the heavy investments the Soviets made to permanently influence our US educational system. But for now . . .

The future Soviet spy John Cairncross was born the last of eight children in Lesmahagow, Scotland, on July 25, 1913. Unlike the other four members of the Cambridge Five, John came from a lower working class family. His father was an ironmonger and his mother was a schoolteacher. Whatever Cairncross may have lacked in aristocratic connections, he more than made up for in intellect. At every step of his impressive education, he was recognized for his brilliance, which apparently ran in the family. All three of his older brothers became highly successful university professors and were recognized as leaders in their respective fields.

Cairncross started his education by qualifying for an academic scholarship to Hamilton Academy in Scotland. Hamilton was rated as Scotland’s best preparatory academy, and the competition for entry was rigorous. Cairncross progressed from Hamilton to Glasgow University, where he received a degree in foreign language. He then attended La Sorbonne in Paris and received another degree in romance languages. After graduating from La Sorbonne, he returned to England and studied at Cambridge in 1934. In 1936, he graduated from Cambridge with degrees in German and French.

While at Cambridge, Cairncross met Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby, and Guy Burgess. They shared left wing philosophies and sympathies for the Soviet Union, but had little else in common. Blunt and Philby claimed that they saw Cairncross as an anti-social, intellectual snob. As for Cairncross, he took a disliking to all three of his future fellow spies. He apparently felt that they were intellectually overrated, and that they thought far too much of themselves and their high births.

After graduating from Cambridge, Cairncross sat for the British Civil Service exam and placed first on the list for both the British Foreign Office and the British Home Office. He was posted to the British Foreign Office.

Based on an overall review of the reports and documents on Cairncross, Holmes believes Cairncross agreed to work for the Soviets before he ever sat for the exam. Blunt knew that Cairncross was a communist sympathizer, and Blunt would have reported that to his handler—likely Alexander Orlov at that moment in time. This would have

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