But do note that it is not possible to be certain of a person's genealogy without a family's cooperation (and/or DNA testing). He was 71. This time it's a true story:Wynne served as an unassuming go-between for British intelligence MI-6 and Russian spyOleg Penkovsky atthe height of the Cold War. It is believed to be correct at the time of inputting and is presented here in good faith. "The Courier" has compressed the real-life story and changed some facts. He later died of throat cancer in London. Penkovsky felt stunted in his career with GRU and expected that by helping the West for a year or two, he and his family could be relocated and build a better life, and that he would personally be showered with recognition and honor. He also held the view that leaking this information would bring him a great deal of recognition and a sense of honour. And he wrote two memoirs about his time as a spy The Man From Moscow in 1967 and The Man From Odessa in 1981. It involved a lot of foreign travel, including trips to Soviet bloc countries, and thus provided ideal cover for spying. When Wynne visited Moscow in July 1962, his hotel room and luggage were searched, and he was tailed during his travels. He was put on trial in Moscow on May 1963 for spying and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. 'The Courier' is currently lived by his son, Andrew as he had already passed away in 1990 at the age of 70. They had one son. Greville Maynard Wynne was a British spy famous for his involvement with, and imprisonment as a result of, the espionage activities of Oleg Penkovsky. In this edition, we will be focusing on the remarkable life and story of British spy, Greville Wynne. However, he was freed in 1964 in exchange for Soviet spy Conon Molody, or Gordon Lonsdale as he called himself in Britain. Like in the movie, they had one son together, Andrew. He just couldnt tell the truth. His dining companion, Dickie Franks, revealed himself to be an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, and asked Wynne for his help. The U.S. was then able to use U-2 spy planes to take photographs and identify the missile sites (see image below). Wynne was a British businessman who, from 1960 and 1962, smuggled thousands of pieces of intel out of Russia before he was captured, imprisoned, and tortured for two years by the KGB. It also helped Americans to understand how limited the Soviets capabilities actually were in the area, so as tensions grew during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy knew how much rope he could give [Soviet Premier Nikita] Khrushchev, as Duns puts it. Penkovsky, who was tried with him, was sentenced to death for treason. Including spy phone software, fully functioning spy phones and more. As weve established, Greville Wynne spent the majority of his professional life as an engineer and a businessman, so how did he actually become a spy? He later died of a throat disease in London. Even though Wynne wasnt exactly a reliable narrator for what he did during his time as a secret agent, the materials he smuggled from behind the Iron Curtain were the real thing. In 2007, Peter Lindford portrayed Wynne in episode one of the BBC docudrama Nuclear Secrets, titled "The Spy from Moscow.". "Greville Wynne was anordinary mandoing an extraordinary thing," Cumberbatch says. What did Greville Wynne do after he was released from the Soviet prison? British - Born 70 years ago (April 1952) Mr Andrew Greville Wynne 4 Londesborough Place Lymington SO41 8QB. Terms of Use Your Privacy Rights After his release he said: They treated me as they thought I should be treated.. Greville Wynne had a wife, Sheila, and a son, Andrew. -The New York Times. [7], Wynne's and Penkovsky's espionage activities were discovered by the KGB. This intelligence gave both the United Kingdom and the United States the knowledge necessary to manage the quickly evolving military friction with the Soviet Union. The MI6 agent suffered from depression after imprisonment and torture. Other unconfirmed claims reckoned he committed suicide in a Soviet labour camp. Under the guise of a sales trip, he made his first contact with high-ranking Soviet intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky in Moscow.The Courier true story reveals that Wynne met Penkovsky eight months after the Soviet double agent had first tried to get in touch with the CIA by handing a bulky envelope of documents to two wary American students in Moscow. He appeared on US game show To Tell The Truth. But he reportedly committed suicide in a Soviet labor camp. This kind of psychological game made them easier to handle during interrogations.. The information that Penkovsky was able to obtain and the position of Wynne enabled the British and Americans to receive crucial information about the Soviet Union. Our complete range of spy cameras. Andrew and Sheila lived in Britain whilst Greville served his prison sentence in Moscow. Wynne left The Ivy restaurant in Seven Dials that day probably wondering what hed let himself in for. She had worked as his secretary and interpreter, speaking eight languages. The couple separated a few years before his death but were still legally married when he died. Wynne said he was subjected to severe beatings and psychological pressure by the Soviet KGM. "(Chisholm)played a very important role in the story that we couldn't get into, because it's a whole other movie," Cooke says. But a living Wynne was more valuable to the Soviets. British officials have never officially commented on his accounts. It led to him and a Soviet double agent, Oleg Penkovsky, becoming firm friends, involved in smuggling thousands of documents and photographs across enemy lines. During the lunch, acquaintance Dickie Franks disclosed that he is an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and revealed that he required Wynnes assistance. The film is out now. Both men were arrested in November 1962, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Penkovsky had made earlier offers to spy for the West. Share or comment on this article: No question.. Opposition Labor Party legislator Ted Leadbitter said of Wynne in a statement to reporters Wednesday night: How many secrets has this man taken to his grave?. Greville Wynne, who spied on the Soviet Union for Britain in the cold war and who spent 18 months in a Moscow prison after being caught, died of throat cancer on Wednesday, hospital officials. The almost universally accepted version of events is that Oleg Penkovsky was executed in 1963 for providing top-secret information to the United Kingdom. They spent so much time together in Moscow, partying and clubbing as well as their secret work, that Wynnes first wife Sheila thought he was having an affair. They were convicted of espionage. That was what they were working on and they were closely watching anyone I associated with.. Describing the moment Wynne was rescued, Cumberbatch, who spent three months losing weight for the scenes, said: His clothes were sort of shrink-wrapped around this skeleton. Wynne arrived back in Britain both mentally and physically traumatised by his experience in the USSR. F T W M. A new Hollywood blockbuster based on the life of the late Cold war British spy Greville Wynne, who retired to Majorca, is being produced starring Benedict Cumberbatch of Doctor Strange and Sherlock fame. A famous picture shows Andrew, Greville and Sheila together outside of their London home immediately after Grevilles release from prison. As mentioned, Greville Wynne had a son named Andrew with his first wife, Sheila. Childhood pictures of Cumberbatch at a similar age prove why Keir was the perfect fit and he is now appearing as the son of his 45-year-old doppelganger in Cold War thriller The Courier. In 2021 in the UK, Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovskys story was brought to the big screen, as the film The Courier was released. Cumberbatch, whose mother is actress Wanda Ventham, is best known for playing Sherlock in the BBC drama and Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. He was flown to Moscow, imprisoned, and tried alongside Penkovsky, who it would later be learned had been arrested the week before Wynne entered Hungary. Greville Wynne Greville Wynne married Sheila Wynne (born Beaton). He battled depression and alcoholism. British officials also never confirmed or denied Wynnes spying claims, and he didnt receive any official recognition for his work. Should you have information that conflicts with anything shown please make us aware by email. Penkovsky's career in the Soviet military had been hindered by the fact that his father had died fighting as an officer for the White Army against the Bolsheviks (Red Army) during the Russian Civil War (1917 1923) and Penkovsky didn't denounce this legacy. Spy Greville Wynne with his son Andrew and wife Sheila outside of their London home after being released from the Soviet prison in April 1964. Greville Wynne's former partners: . This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. On 23 May 1966, he appeared as himself in an episode of the American television series To Tell the Truth, receiving two of four possible votes. In 1985 he was portrayed by actor David Calder in the BBC series Wynne and Penkovsky, and in 2007 by Peter Lindford for BBC drama Nuclear Secrets. Wynne was then hit over the head and knocked out, bundled into a car and taken to prison where interrogators played out a guessing game to establish the links between him and Penkovsky. A stand-off between US President John F Kennedy and Russias Nikita Khrushchev ended with the Soviet president backing down at the 11th hour and removing the threatening missiles. Welcome to the Spy Equipment UK homepage. The moonlighting spy was arrested on a business trip to Budapest in November 1962 and taken to the Soviet Union. They made an odd contrastthe short, energetic, and thinly mustachioed Wynne alongside the military bearing of Penkovskybut there seemed to be genuine affection between the two, and this friendship is a central focus of The Courier. The article also reveals other information about what happened on the day of sentencing and is well worth a read. Easy to set up and use. However, in real life, IRONBARK was the codename for the documents that Soviet double agent Oleg Penkovsky had been passing to the CIA. You, in your own mind, have developed this sense of self-importance, says West. Description. Historians question this account. [9] Penkovsky was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad, though Wynne believed he died by suicide in prison. Click here to Start FameChaining. Unaware of Penkovskys arrest, Wynne travelled to Budapest under his cover name of Mr Veen against the advice of his MI6 bosses. His son Andrew, now in his sixties, politely declined to comment when contacted by the Sunday Mirror about his fathers colourful past. The Ruislip Home That Contained A Soviet Spy Ring, Spy Histories: North Vietnams Defence Against America. "He started as a nave amateur. The two then visited the White House where President John F. Kennedy personally thanked them for their servicethen the two returned to the U.K. just 18 hours later. "His clothes were sort of shrink-wrapped around this skeleton," says Cumberbatch, who spent three months losing weight and physically preparing to portray Wynne's final months of ordeal. Wynne was a businessman at this point in his life and, during this month, he sat down for lunch not knowing that it would significantly change his life. Wynne was a well known character on the island in the 1980s and at one stage . After being arrested by the KGB in 1962 and convicted of spying on May 11, 1963, Wynne was sentenced to eight years in Moscow's Lubyanka prison, where he was held in brutal conditions and subjected to severe beatings and psychological pressure. 2023 Intellisphere Ltd - An Intellisphere Group Company, Registration No 7215890 - VAT Registered No 881 4954 86, Spy Histories The Story Of British Spy Greville Wynne. 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