Cold War Spy. The son of Sir Donald Maclean, Liberal Party politician, he was educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. In 1934, after graduating, he obtained a position at the Foreign Office. In 1940, he was working at the British Embassy in Paris when he married an American girl named Melinda Marling; they managed to escape on a British destroyer, just before the fall of the French capital. He was then transferred to Washington, where he became the Secretary at the British Embassy and, later, the Secretary for the Combined Policy Committee on Atomic Development. In 1948, he became Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Cairo and, in 1950, Head of the American Department at the Foreign Office, where he helped to formulate the Anglo-American policy for the Korean War. However, whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge, Maclean had joined the Communist Party, and was passing on much confidential material to his Soviet spymasters. In 1951, his friend and fellow conspirator, Guy Burgess was forced to resign from the post of Second Secretary at the Washington Embassy, more because of his alcoholism and lifestyle than because he was suspected of treachery. Shortly after this, both men were warned that British and American intelligence was closing in on Maclean. They left the country, traveling through France, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. (Much later, it emerged that they had been tipped off by Kim Philby, and that their escape had been engineered by Anthony Blunt, the Third and Fourth Men in the spy ring). Nothing more was heard from Burgess or Maclean until the 11th. February 1956, when they announced their defection at a press conference in Moscow. 27 years later, after Maclean's death, his ashes were brought back in secret to England, and buried by torchlight in his parents' grave. There is no marker to indicate this.

Cold War Spy. The son of Sir Donald Maclean, Liberal Party politician, he was educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. In 1934, after graduating, he obtained a position at the Foreign Office. In 1940, he was working at the British Embassy in Paris when he married an American girl named Melinda Marling; they managed to escape on a British destroyer, just before the fall of the French capital. He was then transferred to Washington, where he became the Secretary at the British Embassy and, later, the Secretary for the Combined Policy Committee on Atomic Development. In 1948, he became Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Cairo and, in 1950, Head of the American Department at the Foreign Office, where he helped to formulate the Anglo-American policy for the Korean War. However, whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge, Maclean had joined the Communist Party, and was passing on much confidential material to his Soviet spymasters. In 1951, his friend and fellow conspirator, Guy Burgess was forced to resign from the post of Second Secretary at the Washington Embassy, more because of his alcoholism and lifestyle than because he was suspected of treachery. Shortly after this, both men were warned that British and American intelligence was closing in on Maclean. They left the country, traveling through France, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. (Much later, it emerged that they had been tipped off by Kim Philby, and that their escape had been engineered by Anthony Blunt, the Third and Fourth Men in the spy ring). Nothing more was heard from Burgess or Maclean until the 11th. February 1956, when they announced their defection at a press conference in Moscow. 27 years later, after Maclean's death, his ashes were brought back in secret to England, and buried by torchlight in his parents' grave. There is no marker to indicate this.

Bio by: Iain MacFarlaine