Focus on
Olga Gray and the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring
In 1938, thanks to years of work by a remarkable female agent, MI5 ensured a package of British defence plans stayed secret.
Piece
Denis Nowell PRITT: British. PRITT, a King's Counsel and Labour (and later Independent)...
Catalogue reference: KV 2/1062
What’s it about?
This record is about the Denis Nowell PRITT: British. PRITT, a King's Counsel and Labour (and later Independent)... dating from 1932 Jul 31-1940 Apr 16 in the series The Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files. It is held at The National Archives, Kew.
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Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- KV 2/1062
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1932 Jul 31-1940 Apr 16
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Description (What the record is about)
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Denis Nowell PRITT: British. PRITT, a King's Counsel and Labour (and later Independent) Member of Parliament for North Hammersmith, was identified by Gen. Walter KRIVITSKY (KV/2/802) in 1940 as "one of the chief recruiting agents for Soviet underground organisations in the United Kingdom". PRITT was an ardent supporter of all aspects of Soviet policy, to the extent that he was expelled from the Labour Party in March 1940 for his support for the Russian invasion of Finland, although he refused to resign his seat. He attempted unsuccessfully to rejoin the Labour Party in 1945 and, having been refused, retained the seat as an "Independent Labour" candidate. He was a member of the governing bodies of numerous organisations which the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) controlled or sought strongly to influence, and played a significant part in their activities. As such he was in close contact with leading members of the CPGB. PRITT himself was not a member of the Party. The file consists mostly of material relating to PRITT's public activities as a speaker at "front" organisations and his authorship of propaganda. It concludes that KRIVITSKY did not mean that PRITT was a spy or recruiter of spies but a propagandist and agent of the CPSU
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Former department reference (Former identifier given by the originating creator)
- PF41856 VOLS 1 & 2
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Retained Until 2002
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Closure status (Whether the record is ‘open’ (available to the public) or ‘closed’ (not available due to a legal exemption))
- Open Document, Open Description
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Europe and Russia
- Communism
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C11090396/
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- View this record page in our current catalogue
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Series information
KV 2
The Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files
See the series level description for more information about this record.
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
6,152 records
Within the department: KV
Records of the Security Service
4,773 records
Within the series: KV 2
The Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files
You are currently looking at the piece: KV 2/1062
Denis Nowell PRITT: British. PRITT, a King's Counsel and Labour (and later Independent)...
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