Sixth member of Cambridge Spy Ring revealed
Author claims MI6 physicist Wilfred Mann was the sixth member of the infamous Cambridge Spy Ring
Author Andrew Lownie, who has written a book about another of the Cambridge spies, Guy Burgess (above) uncovered documents in his research that he claims prove there was the sixth member of the ring Photo: Rex
By Sophie Jamieson
4:36PM BST 06 Sep 2015
A sixth member of the Cambridge Spy Ring has been revealed as an MI6 physicist known to colleagues as "Atomic Man", according to an expert who has devoted 30 years into researching the infamous group.
Wilfred Mann denied the allegations that he was a KGB agent, helping the Russians develop their own atom bomb, in his 1982 book Was There A Fifth Man?
But author Andrew Lownie, who has written a book about another of the Cambridge spies, Guy Burgess, uncovered documents in his research that he claims prove Mann was the sixth member of the ring.
Born in London in 1908, Mann attended St Paul’s school and studied at Imperial College, before going on to work for MI6.
Mr Lownie claims Mann was the KGB spy foiled by the CIA in 1948, known as "Basil" in the 1979 book The Climate of Treason by Andrew Boyle. Basil was Mann’s middle name.
Boyle’s book recounts how "Basil" chose to become a double agent for the CIA rather than be prosecuted in the USA.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Lownie said he had discovered confirmation of Mann’s espionage in private papers belonging to Sir Patrick Reilly, who was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Foreign Office Under-Secretary for intelligence in the 1950s.
In his unpublished memoirs, Reilly wrote: "'That “Basil', who can easily be identified, was in fact a Soviet spy is true: and also that he was turned round without difficulty."
Mr Lownie said: "Mann's treachery has been known for some time in intelligence circles and it is perhaps significant that in spite of his wartime scientific contributions in both the UK and the US he received no obituaries.
"But he has never previously been named publicly until I uncovered independent documentary proof while researching my new biography of Burgess."
