#intelligence officer

John Cairncross WWII intelligence officer and Soviet spy was born on 27th July 1913 in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire. Dates differ a wee bit, come sources say 25th Cairncross’s father was the manager of an ironmonger’s and his mother a primary school teacher. John  was one of a family of eight, many of whom had distinguished careers. All three of his brothers became professors. One was the economist Sir Alexander Kirkland Cairncross (a.k.a. Alec Cairncross). The journalist Frances Cairncross is his niece. Cairncross grew up in Lesmahagow attending the town’s Academy, before going on to University of Glasgow; the Sorbonne and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied French and German.

it was while at Cambridge Cairncross was introduced to two of the most famous 20th century spies, Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess and soon became a Communist working with the Cambridge Spy Ring. Monitored by Soviet agent Samuel Cahan, he received a short course in espionage tactics before taking the Home Office and Foreign Office exams, receiving the highest scores on both.

Cairncross worked briefly with Donald Maclean at the Foreign Office before the war, he was assigned to Bletchley Park in 1942/43 but unlike in The Film The Imitation game it is highly unlikely he would have met, let alone blackmailed Alan Turing. He did however pass on cases full of intercepted German messages which he transported in the back seat of his car to the Soviet Embassy. He joined the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 in 1944 and continued working for them until 1951 when sensitive documents in Cairncross’ handwriting were found in Guy Burgess apartment after he and Maclean fled to Russia. He was thus fired from his position in the British Treasury department, although he denied being a spy. He turned to scholarly activities and humanitarian efforts for the United Nations. In 1964, Sir Anthony Blunt confessed to being a Soviet spy and in return for leniency identified Cairncross as another Soviet agent. When confronted with the evidence, Cairncross admitted to his espionage, explaining that he had not spied for several years, saying that he spied only during World War II, when Russia was a British ally.

Soviet defectors later disputed Cairncross statements about his limited involvement in espionage. They claimed that he had turned over countless reams of information.

Fearful of negative publicity and scandal, the British government hushed up his activities, declining to prosecute him for espionage or to expose him to the public. Cairncross, in fact, remained for a time in his job as with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

Lewis Nixon

I was once told that walking through a doorway could cause someone to forget,

Even the most precious memories they had,

Memories of good, memories of bad, memories of love and of loss

All tucked away neatly,

Stored like the worn out blankets that were kept to dress the rainy days,

And bad habits that happen from time to time

Or what it felt like to rest your head on a friend's shoulder,

That still carries with it the creases from where you last placed your heart,

Just like that,

Gone within a single step,

Find me - Forest Blakk