William Henry Taylor

William Henry Taylor (30 March 1906 - ?) was an accused Soviet spy.

Biography

He was born in British Columbia on 30 March 1906 and studied at the University of British Columbia, and attended school with Nathan Gregory Silvermaster at the University of California where he received a Ph.D. from the in 1933, taught economics at the University of Hawaii for 8 years and became a naturalized citizen in 1940. In 1934 while living in Hawaii Taylor visited the Soviet Union and spent several months there.

Taylor was able to secure employment within the United States Department of the Treasury through Secretary Harry Dexter White in 1941. The Treaury Department sent him to China and later Lisbon, Portugal for the Foreign Economic Administration. Taylor also was a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), in violation of federal employment statutes barring membership in an organization seeking the violent overthrow of the United States Government. As a CPUSA member and of the secret apparatus known as the Silvermaster group, Taylor supplied information orally and in document form to Soviet intelligence.

In June 1945 Taylor worked out of the U.S. Embassy in London and later that year Paris.

Associates claim Taylor spoke about Communism constantly. He is one of two Soviet agents who used the code name "Acorn" as deciphered by the Venona project. Code names sometimes were changed by a user and another assigned.

ource

*FBI Silvermaster File
* [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/silversm.htm Silvermaster Group FBI FOIA]