Donald Maclean (spy) - Chronology

Chronology

• 1913 Born on 25 May in London
• 1926 to 1931 Attended Gresham's School in Norfolk
• 1931 to 1934 Read Modern Languages at Trinity Hall, Cambridge
• 1934 Recruited by the Soviet Intelligence Service
• 1934 Started work at the Foreign Office
• 1940 Married Melinda Marling while working at the British Embassy in Paris shortly before evacuation.
• Relocated to Washington as Secretary in the British Embassy. It was here that he had access to details of the atomic bomb program, eventually becoming the Secretary for the Combined Policy Committee on Atomic Development.
• As the pressure of his double life began to mount, he started to drink heavily and became an alcoholic
• 1941 Identified by Walter Krivitsky, a Soviet defector
• 1944 son Fergus born
• 1946 son Donald born
• 1948 Relocated to Cairo and promoted to Head of Chancery in the British Embassy
• After a drunken episode he was sent home to London to "recover" from his "nervous breakdown"
• 1950 Promoted to head the American Department in the Foreign Office. Here he had access to top secret information on the atomic development program
• 1951 daughter Melinda born
• 1951 Warned by Philby that he is under suspicion and will most likely be unmasked. Maclean and Burgess both defect to the Soviet Union
• Live in Kuybyshev
• 1956 They appear in Moscow, he is made a colonel of the KGB with a Moscow apartment and a dacha outside the city.
• 1963 Kim Philby defects to Soviet Union.
• 1970 Published British Foreign Policy Since Suez, 1956-1968 (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1970)
• 1983 Died of a heart attack in Moscow on 6 March.
• Cremated; his ashes were later returned to the United Kingdom.