Convicted of Espionage
A GRU cipher clerk in Canada, Igor Gouzenko, defected to the West in Ottawa in September 1945; this was right around the time when Nunn May's Canadian assignment ended. Gouzenko passed along copies of GRU documents implicating Nunn May, including details of the proposed meeting in London. Nunn May did not go to the British Museum meeting, but he was arrested in March 1946. Nunn May confessed to espionage. On 1 May 1946, he was sentenced to ten years hard labour. He was released in late 1952, after serving six and a half years. After his release, he characterized his passing Uranium isotopes to the Soviet Union as a "contribution ... to the safety of mankind."
Blacklisted from universities in Britain, Nunn May worked for a scientific instruments company, then in 1961 went to work at the University of Ghana, where he conducted research in solid-state physics and created a science museum.
Read more about this topic: Alan Nunn May
Famous quotes containing the words convicted of, convicted and/or espionage:
“The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Should the conflagration climb,
Run till all the sages know.
We the great gazebo built,
They convicted us of guilt;
Bid me strike a match and blow.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I cannot think that espionage can be recommended as a technique for building an impressive civilisation. It’s a lout’s game.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)