The British Library wanted to acquire the personal archive of the notorious double agent Kim Philby in a deal worth tens of thousands of pounds to his widow, according to newly released government files.
Papers released by the National Archives in Kew show that officials in the mid-1990s were horrified by the prospect of such an institution being party to an arrangement that would enrich the family of a man whose treachery was blamed for countless agent deaths.
The library sought to reassure the government that no public money would be involved and that they were seeking a “benefactor” who would finance the purchase, but the proposal was quietly dropped after the alarm expressed by officials in John Major’s government.
The then cabinet secretary, Sir Robin Butler, said even with the reassurances that the proposal would be unacceptable, writing: “I doubt whether this is a transaction that the British Library should promote or even whether they should agree to receive the papers.”
Philby, who was recruited by the KGB in the 1930s as part of the Cambridge spy ring, had risen to become a senior officer in MI6 before coming under suspicion in the 1950s.
The library was first approached by his fourth wife, Rufina, a Russian, in 1993, five years after his death and 30 years after he fled to Moscow amid fears he was finally about to be unmasked.
She wanted £68,000 for the collection, which included details of a course Philby had run after his defection to the Soviet Union for KGB agents preparing to deploy to the UK.
Michael Borrie, a senior member of the library staff, contacted the Cabinet Office to say that their chief executive was keen to go ahead, provided suitable arrangements could be made.
“The chief executive feels that these should be in a British public institution, provided they are what they purport to be, and have not been sanitised or made a vehicle for disinformation,” he wrote. “He is not however willing to spend the grant-in-aid on them, and is looking for a benefactor.”
Borrie did not say who they had in mind as a benefactor, although Cabinet Office officials believed they may have been thinking of Max Hastings, the editor of the Daily Telegraph at the time. There is nothing in the files, however, to indicate why they thought this or to suggest that Hastings was aware of it.
In the Cabinet Office, officials feared a public backlash if such a deal was agreed, even if no taxpayer money was involved.
One official, Jon Sibson, said: “I suspect that there might be something of an outcry if it became known that a public body was involved even in this way in a transaction which would enrich a traitor’s widow.”
It was decided that the top civil servant at the Department of National Heritage, Hayden Phillips, should seek an informal meeting with the chair of the trustees, Sir Anthony Kenny, to discreetly warn him off.
The approach had the desired effect and the library dropped its interest in the proposal. Philby’s widow, however, did not lose out, with the various items in the collection selling for £150,000 when they were put up for auction at Sotheby’s.
