The day the double agent came for tea

ROGER ALTON’S article on espionage (Mail) brought back memories from the spring of 1961. i had just joined a London legal firm as a ‘temp’ in Soho. our poky old office was opposite the historical Marlborough Street Magistrates’ Court and my job was typing up wills and lengthy court briefs on an ancient black manual typewriter. i often delivered work to the court over the road. one morning i heard a hullabaloo outside the office. Peering from our window, i saw crowds of men milling around a circle of policemen who were escorting someone into our building. Loud banging on the locked door followed. our chief barrister, red-faced and looking nervous, escorted his scowling client up the staircase to our first-floor office, avoiding the burly policemen trying to control the crowds of reporters who were yelling out questions. The stranger rushed in. ‘i need the toilet!’ he was obviously desperate. i led him through our main office to the WC. The chief clerk suggested i put the kettle on to make the visitor a cup of tea, for which he complimented me as the two of us companionably sipped.

Later, i learnt that this was the infamous double-agent George Blake, who was eventually tried at the old Bailey for spying and sentenced to 42 years in Wormwood Scrubs. That date, april 12, 1961, happened to be a red-letter day in the Soviet union, as their own cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to travel in space. in 1966, newspaper headlines screamed of George Blake’s escape from prison to russia. in his 1990 autobiography no other Choice, Blake explained his reasons for converting to Communism, becoming a spy, escaping to Moscow and outlining his tangled personal life. he also mentioned his ‘legal brief’ — my old boss — and the kindness of his legal team. no mention, though, of that nice cuppa made by the little office temp!