Cedric Henning Belfrage
Catalogue reference: KV 2/4004–4012 (KV 2/4004 (PDF, 24 MB) has been digitised)
Date range: 24 June 1936–25 November 1963
Cedric Belfrage was a left-wing British journalist who was employed by the Daily Express before moving to the United States. Between 1941 and 1943 he worked for the combined MI6 and Special Operations Executive body, British Security Coordination, in New York. Belfrage went on to work for the Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force).
In 1946 evidence from an FBI investigation into Jacob Golos and the defector codenamed ‘Speed’ revealed Belfrage had passed intelligence, including information on British spy craft and sensitive documents on Vichy France, to the Soviets. Belfrage admitted this but claimed he was using level intelligence to infiltrate Soviet networks. Belfrage was never tried, but appeared before the Un-American Activities Committee and gained considerable notoriety in the media. He was deported from the US in 1955 on the grounds that he had been a member of the US Communist Party.
Belfrage continued to be of interest to MI5, but while he remained strongly left wing in his politics he was not directly aligned with the Communist Party of Great Britain, or suspected of any further espionage. KV 2/4004 contains a letter signed by Kim Philby stating that Belfrage had worked for the British.
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