Talk:George Blake

Death

TV Series Secrets of War: The cold war episode 5 Inside the KGB says at around 26 minutes in that he died in 1996. Judging from the article he did not and celebrated his 90th birthday in 2012. I suppose the documentary that interviewed him as well was wrong ?? Was his death faked / mis reported?

I have a book "Hearn, Chester G. (2006). Spies & Espionage: A Directory. Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 978-1-59223-508-7. It states he died in 1990 (page 95). Adamdaley (talk) 10:16, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

He has been interviewed by the BBC in both 2012 and 2017. Sufficient evidence that he's alive. Books can be wrong you know.--Jkaharper (talk) 10:39, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Royal Navy Experience

During WW2 Blake served in the Royal Navy. As HMS Mauritius set off from Glasgow for the Normandy beaches in June 1944 she stopped in the Firth of Clyde and a tender came alongside and took off PO George Blake (newly promoted, still in seamans rig.

I removed this paragraph because, as written, I don't know what it means or why it's relevant to the rest of the article. Someone who understands should clarify the text and add this back to the article. mako (talk•contribs) 17:53, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

huntley53 (talk) 17:09, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Clean up

I have attempted to give the article some structure by introducing some headings. I have also rewritten some parts in order to give some clarity, and have removed several wrong assertions which could certainly not have been verified in any of the biographies:

• He was not a Dutch/British spy, he worked for MI6 so just British will do
• His father was born Turkish not Egyptian
• His family was not an "eminent Jewish family of Amsterdam". It was his father's side of the family which was Jewish not the Dutch side. His mother's family were from Rotterdam not Amsterdam.
• Henri Curiel was his cousin not his uncle, and while they did spend time together there is no evidence to back-up the assertion that he spent "most of his time" with Curiel
• I have deleted the whole of the Iris Peake incident as it was chronologically inaccurate (it happened after the War) and seems irrelevant in this context. Most biographers only mention the incident in passing as a possible reason for Blake to have a grudge against the British establishment, and the idea that it sent Blake running back to his "uncle" in Egypt in order to join the KGB is just plain wrong. It was his incarceration by the North Koreans (and some would say "brain-washing") that led him to turn to Communism and to contact the KGB in Berlin.--77.97.173.114 15:46, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

I would like to add that the reference to Holland should be The Netherlands (Holland is not strictly a country)

According to Hermiston, his father was born in Egypt.--Jack Upland (talk) 10:08, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Escape Section Needs Revision

The escape section is a word-for-word copy of the cited site: http://libcom.org/history/1966-the-blake-prison-escape. hodgetts 04:32, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Should i write the escape section here or make a new article for it and just a brief summary in this article?--Allie cabab (talk) 14:30, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Order of Friendship

• Blake was awarded the "Order of Friendship" in 2007 should that be mentioned. Last paragraph in this link. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/27/AR2008012702378_pf.htm D.Mandalore (talk) 00:35, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

New Theory on Blake's Background

Blake was a Soviet Illegal officer, sent by PGU to infiltrate British Intelligence. Konon Molody was his Illegal Resident. http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=10178FE5-3B51-4844-B295-B6E98FC3199F —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.112.136.226 (talk) 15:15, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

The link is dead, but this theory would need to explain his mother, who remained in Britain and visited him in Moscow.--Jack Upland (talk) 09:35, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

George Blakes. Great Escape.

When Mr Blake was in Prison just prior to his escape a 'Walkie Talkie' was smuggled to him to inform him of the plans for the escape. Eventually after being told to wait at the appointed place at the Prison Wall a rope was thrown over. He climbed up the rope and was over the other side when he fell a short distance to the ground. He had injured his ankle but still clambered into a waiting van to escape. After spending a short time in a safe house he was smuggled in a car via the Dover ferry to Europe. From Dover he was driven to East Germany. On his way to East Germany he played 'I Spy' with a child who was in the escape car. After passing through check points to drive to East Berlin, the car stopped at a side road and Mr Blake stepped out. As the car drove away the driver looked back and the last he saw of Mr Blake was him standing in the road, smiling and waving 'goodbye'. Asked why he helped Blake escape, one of the Desperadoes was so drunk during his interview by the Press he gave a slurred unintelligible reply. Another Desperado said he thought the sentence given to a good man was unjust. None of the escape team agreed with Mr Blakes crimes.Johnwrd (talk) 23:59, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

---

I knew Sean Bourke after his return to Ireland and this is what he told me about the Escape Plan.

The escape was organised on the outside by Sean Bourke, an anarcharist from Limerick, Ireland. Bourke, a former inmate of Wormwood Scrubs, brought a fixed ladder and a rope ladder to the wall of the prison. Blake, on the inside, threw a pot of jam over the wall to tell Bourke where to place the ladder. Burke climbed the fixed ladder, dropped the rope ladder from the top of the wall and Blake climbed up over and away. A massive police hunt was started within minutes of the escape with black marias with blue lights flashing speeding along both directions of the Harrow Road. A television newsflash said that it was a highly planned KGB operation. Bourke and Blake spent the night at Burke's bedsit and the next day Burke went to the embassy of the U.S.S.R. in London to arrange their escape from the U.K. Eddie Punch (talk) 14:33, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Better still, what about his great escape from Death. According to the documentary program "Inside the KGB - Terror of the Soviet Union", George Blake is actually dead. According to the program he died in 1996 in Moscow. So who is right?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.8.158.131 (talk) 19:47, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

He is clearly still alive.--Jack Upland (talk) 09:37, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Recruitment by KGB

I have removed this unreferenced section: "He went to his uncle and confidant, Henri Curiel, who recruited him for the KGB." He was recruited while in Korea. Marshall46 (talk) 22:41, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Christianity

In the recent Tom Bowyer documentary on BBC Radio 4, much was made of Blake's early Christianity, his loss of faith and its replacement with Communism. This helps to explain his motivation and ought to be included in the article. Marshall46 (talk) 22:55, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

There are a lot of lapsed Christians around. It doesn't really explain anything.--Jack Upland (talk) 06:34, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Removal of Unreferenced Tag

I added an unreferenced section tag to the new paragraph on George Blake's escape becuase i think there are several things in it that are wrong or at least i have never heard of before, and i have read a bit about it, mainly reading Michael Randle and Pat Pottle's book. from the edit summary it looks like the informationwas got from an interview that the editor had with Sean Bourke surely this is not a good enough reference?

i would like to know why the tag was removed? was it wrong in wikipedia policy? thanks--Allie Cabab (talk) 19:54, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

References 8 and 9

Reference 8: The paragraph near the end of the article that talks about a European Court of Human Rights ruling cites reference 8, but the BBC link contains no mention of that ruling, nor of the £5,000 compensation. Should reference 8 be moved to an earlier part of the paragraph? Also, can we find a reference to that ECHR ruling?

Reference 9: The Times article is behind a paywall. I think the Wikipedia policy is either not to link to paywall-protected websites, or else to mark it with a paywall warning. If that's the case, can somebody either replace the reference or make the necessary changes to the existing one?

Thanks 78.134.60.102 (talk) 18:32, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Russian Name

I could see no mention of his adopted Russian name, Georgi Ivanovitch. Was his father called Ivan, or John? 2.24.89.113 (User:Frank Shailes) 13:29, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

No, his father was Albert.--Jack Upland (talk) 09:56, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Current Status

A statement of Blake's current status was fact-tagged, so I have amended it to reflect reports of his 90th birthday. I don't think we need a running commentary on the fact that he is still living in Moscow. When he dies, it will be worldwide news, and obviously that hasn't happened yet, as is verifiable by a simple Google search.--Jack Upland (talk) 03:03, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Wife?

The article mentions that Blake divorced his wife after escaping to Moscow, but not that he ever got married in the first place. Are any other details known? 94.12.70.74 (talk) 16:25, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Blake married in Oct. 1954. I added 1 sentence, and ref to autobiography p.165. Vysotsky (talk) 20:07, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

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Picture

Why does the top picture show him cleanshaven, when he has had a beard for most of his life?--Jack Upland (talk) 05:58, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

It looks to me that he is in the contemporary prison uniform. As with at least one other image, the claim that this is a "Swedish" photograph is utterly spurious. Nick Cooper (talk) 09:06, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

It looks like a suit and tie to me.--Jack Upland (talk) 07:55, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

It is a prison photograph, one of two, the other showing him in right-facing profile. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ServeDotty (talk • contribs) 15:59, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Description of father

In the interview cited, Blake says, "My father was a Spanish Jew who came from the Middle East or the Near East". In his book, No Other Choice (p 26), Blake says his father was "Jewish and born in Constantinople where his ancestors found refuge after their expulsion from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century". A Sephardi Jew in other words. Roger Hermiston, however, says Albert was born in Cairo (The Greatest Traitor, ch 1). It is possible that Blake didn't know his father's birthplace. It is certainly true that the Behar family was living in Egypt. We could call him a "Sephardi Jew" or a "Near Eastern Jew" or something like that, but calling him "Spanish" is misleading. He had probably never been to Spain.--Jack Upland (talk) 07:53, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

I was only going on what he said in the linked interview. I haven’t looked further than that. If you have more information that is referenced then go ahead and add it. Burrobert (talk) 08:08, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Agents betrayed

If someone can put their hands on a copy of Hermiston, can they double-check what he says about the number of agents betrayed? Having read the book, I think what we say in the article is wrong or misleading.--Jack Upland (talk) 17:43, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Incorrect Quote Citation 49

The Quote: "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged." was not said by George Blake but rather Kim Philby to Murray Sale and published in the Sunday Times interview of Philby 17 December 1967. Citation 49 shows a video of Blake, but does not show any example of the quote. The quote is incorrectly attributed to Blake and should be removed from Blake's page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Sayle Che Guevara and Kim Philby Philby told Sayle, "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged."[1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bidenmytime2024 (talk • contribs) 00:11, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

The quote is attributed to Blake in many sources:[1]. It is possible that Blake was quoting Philby. I have corrected the citation.--Jack Upland (talk) 07:35, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

First photo date

So, where is the proof that the first photo's date is correct?

"Blake with his mother upon his return to the UK in 1953"

The text says he also returned in 1943 from, I think, the Netherlands. The photo is from a now deleted eBay auction, so not a reliable source. Interzone826 (talk) 05:49, 13 August 2023 (UTC)