HC Deb 11 July 1963 vol 680 cc170-1W
Mr. A. Lewis

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will publish in HANSARD a list of persons who, since October 1951, have been convicted of espionage offences, their crime, sentence, and the positions they held at the time of their convictions.

Mr. Brooke

The Official Secrets Acts do not refer in terms to an offence of espionage. Section 1(1,c) of the Official Secrets Act, 1911, provides that an offence is committed by any person who obtains, collects, records or publishes, or communicates to any other person, any secret official code word, or pass word, or any sketch, plan, model, article, or note, or other document or information which is calculated to be or might be or is in- tended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy. Since 1st October, 1951, the following eleven persons have been

Name Total sentence of imprisonment Position held
William Marshall 5 years Wireless Operator, Foreign Office.
John Clarence 5 years Clerk, Territorial Army.
Bryan Frederick Linney 14 years Electrical engineer employed by commercial firm.
Anthony Maynard Wraight 3 years Former R.A.F. Officer.
Gordon Arnold Lonsdale 25 years Company director.
Peter John Kroger 20 years Bookseller.
Helen Joyce Kroger 20 years Housewife.
Henry Frederick Houghton 15 years Civil servant.
Ethel Elizabeth Gee 15 years Civil servant.
George Blake 42 years Civil servant.
William John Christopher Vassall 18 years Civil servant.

I am informed that during the same period the following two members of

Name Total sentence of imprisonment Position held
Corporal J. Edwards 8 years Army N.C.O.
Corporal J. M. Wood 12 years Army N.C.O.