- Harry Houghton
Harry Houghton (born 1906, date of death unknown) was a spy for the
People's Republic of Poland and theUSSR during theCold War . He was part of thePortland Spy Ring .Early life
Henry Frederick Houghton was born in Lincoln,
England , in 1906. Like most working-class children of his time he left school at 14 to become an errand boy. He later joined theRoyal Navy . By the end ofWorld War II he was amaster-at-arms , one of the highest ranks for non-commissioned officers.Houghton had married in 1940. After the war he joined the civil service and in 1951 he was attached to the staff of the
naval attaché of the British Embassy inWarsaw ,Poland . Houghton dabbled in theblack market , starting with coffee and later moving on to medical drugs. This made him plenty of money and acquaintances but it also led him to heavy drinking and the attention of the Polish Secret Police.Houghton's heavy drinking did get him into trouble. His wife complained of
domestic abuse and there were concerns at the embassy that he was mixing with the wrong people. In 1952 he was ordered home.Whether or not Houghton passed on secrets to the Poles at this time is a matter for speculation. His wife at the time has claimed that she once found confidential embassy papers at their home.
Although some considered him a security risk, Houghton was appointed to the
Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment at Portland where the Royal Navy would test equipment for undersea warfare. For a while he lived in a caravan. He and his wife separated in 1956 and later divorced, and he started an affair withEthel Elizabeth Gee , a filling clerk who also worked at the base.His ex-wife is said to have warned the authorities that he was a security risk and had even brought secrets home. But these were taken as simple resentment for the way he had treated her.
He never had children with his first wife although he was a father to her child.Fact|date=February 2007
pying career
By 1956 it is believed that Houghton was by now passing secrets over to Polish spies who sent them on to the Russians. These would have included details on submarine warfare. Gee had access to secrets that were out of his department. She would make them available to him and he would photograph them. On the first Saturday of every month Houghton would go to London, sometimes with Gee, and swap packages with a contact.
Houghton's heavy drinking did not stop, and he was soon living far in excess of his salary. This included buying a new house and car and buying large rounds at the pub. This did bring suspicion and
MI5 put him undersurveillance . This led to other members of what was to be known as thePortland Spy Ring .In his book "
Spycatcher ",Peter Wright claims that Harry Houghton first came to MI5's attention when a Polish mole (codenamed Sniper) reported that he had information that there was a Russian spy in the British Navy. According to Wright, Sniper did not know the exact name of the spy, but knew that his name sounded like Huiton. Additionally, Sniper managed to obtain documents that had been sent by the spy, helping MI5 to discover Houghton by determining who had been given access to those documents.Houghton and Gee were among five persons who were arrested in London by
Special Branch detectives on7 January 1961 . The others arrested wereGordon Lonsdale and Morris andLona Cohen , all professional spies.At their trial, Houghton claimed that he had been blackmailed by the Poles, and thus the Russians, into spying for them. While in Poland, he had had an affair with a woman black marketeer and was told that she could go to prison in Poland if he did not supply them with secrets. Threats were also made concerning Gee and his ex-wife, and he said he was attacked twice by thugs. He even claimed that the information he did give them were newspaper cuttings and matters that were already in the public knowledge.
All these claims, and the rejected offer to cooperate with the British authorities, were more than likely ploys for Houghton to portray himself as a reluctant spy, in the hope for a lesser sentence. It was also attempts to minimize Gee's involvement in the spy ring.
Later life
Houghton and Gee were both sentenced to 15 years in prison. They married soon after their release in 1970 and changed their names. According to research, Houghton died sometime between 1981 and 1992. [http://archive.dorsetecho.co.uk/2000/12/8/107603.html The ring of confidentiality] ]
References
*"Soviet Spy Ring", by
Arthur Tietjen , published byPan Books , (1961)
*"Spy Book The Encyclopedia of Espionage", byNorman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, published byGreenhill Books , ISBN 1-85367-278-5 (1997)
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