However, such an act was never a real possibility ; upon debriefing Philby in London on 24 May 1937, Maly wrote to the NKVD, " Though devoted and ready to sacrifice himself, does not possess the physical courage and other qualities necessary for this attempt.

In an interview with spy writer and journalist Phillip Knightley held shortly before his death, Philby himself blamed his exposure on " that bloody man Burgess ", who had effectively ruined his chances of becoming head of MI6 itself.

Blunt himself in his public confession on BBC television denied this and claimed that Philby had warned Maclean.

In this period he shared a room with Kim Philby, who, decades later, would reveal himself to the world as one of the greatest Soviet mole spies that ever existed.

In London, Philby enrolled at the School of Slavonic languages to learn Russian, helped by his father, a friend of the director.

The Spanish Army Red Cross of Military Merit awarded by General Francisco Franco to Kim Philby at Salamanca town on 2nd March 1938

As a result of this accident, Philby, who was well-liked by the Nationalist forces whose victories he trumpeted, was awarded the Red Cross of Military Merit by Franco on 2 March 1938.

Philby was originally a Section D officer and is so noted in a letter of 24 September 1940 written by Lt. Col. Valentine Vivian, the head of Section V at that time.

Angleton, later chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's ( CIA ) counter-intelligence staff, became suspicious of Philby when he failed to pass on information relating to a British agent executed by the Gestapo in Germany.

Philby claimed to have overheard discussion of this by chance and sent a report to his controller.

These lapses by Philby aroused intense suspicion in Moscow.

Aileen Philby resented him and disliked his presence ; Americans were offended by his " natural superciliousness " and " utter contempt for the whole pyramid of values, attitudes, and courtesies of the American way of life.

Under a cloud of suspicion raised by his highly-visible and intimate association with Burgess, Philby returned to London.

In October 1955 Philby was officially cleared by Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan, who told the House of Commons, " I have no reason to conclude that Mr. Philby has at any time betrayed the interests of his country, or to identify him with the so-called ' Third Man ', if indeed there was one.

After being exonerated, Philby was no longer employed by MI6, and Soviet intelligence lost all contact with him.

" Prompted by Elliott's accusations, Philby confirmed the charges of espionage and describe his intelligence activities on behalf of the Soviets.

Philby was under virtual house arrest, guarded, with all visitors screened by the KGB.

Though Philby claimed publicly in January 1988 that he did not regret his decisions, and that he missed nothing about England except some friends, Colman's mustard, and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, his KGB-appointed wife Rufina later described Philby as " disappointed in many ways " by what he found in Moscow.

" Philby drank heavily and suffered from loneliness and depression ; according to Rufina, he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists in the 1960s.

* One of the earliest appearances of Kim Philby as a character in fiction was in " Gentleman Traitor " by Alan Williams in 1974.

* The 2003 novel Fox at the Front by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson depicts Philby selling secrets to the Soviet Union during the alternate Battle of the Bulge where German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel turns on the Nazis and assists the Allies in capturing all of Berlin.

In fact, Philby had ended le Carré's intelligence officer career by betraying him to the Russians.

Philby is played by Toby Stephens.

* In the 1987 adaptation of the above mentioned Frederick Forsyth novel The Fourth Protocol, Kim Philby is portrayed by Michael Bilton.

* In the 2007 ( TNT ) television three-part series The Company, produced by Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, and John Calley, Philby is portrayed by Tom Hollander.

which raised a few awkward questions, British Intelligence assisted Bazna in writing I was Cicero the English edition of which was published by André Deutsch, a Hungarian publisher in London who also published von Papen's memoirs and was later asked to publish the memoirs of Kim Philby.

* Under the cover name of ' Mowgli ' Philby appears in Duncan Kyle's WWII thriller " Black Camelot " published in 1978.

* Genrikh Borovik, The Philby Files, 1994, published by Little, Brown & Company Limited, Canada, ISBN 0-316-91015-5.

* Phillip Knightley, Philby: KGB Masterspy 2003, published by Andre Deutsch Ltd, London, ISBN 978-0-233-00048-0.

* Kim Philby, My Silent War, published by Macgibbon & Kee Ltd, London, 1968, or Granda Publishing, ISBN 978-0-586-02860-5.

* Bruce Page, David Leitch and Phillip Knightley, Philby: The Spy Who Betrayed a Generation, 1968, published by André Deutsch, Ltd., London.

Philby had undertaken to devise an escape plan which would warn Maclean, currently in England, of the intense suspicion he was under and arrange for him to flee.

Following Aileen Philby's death in England in 1957, and Eleanor's subsequent divorce from Brewer, Philby and Eleanor were married in London in 1959, and set up house together in Beirut.

They subsequently moved to England ; however, as Philby assumed the role of a fascist sympathiser, they separated.

Realizing he had to act fast, he ordered Burgess, who was on the embassy staff as well and living with Philby, to warn Maclean in England, where he was serving in the Foreign Office headquarters.

In Moscow, the British traitor Kim Philby drafts a memorandum for the General Secretary ( Soviet president ) stating that, if the Labour Party wins the next general election in the UK ( scheduled for sometime in the subsequent eighteen months ), the " hard left " of the party will oust the moderate, populist Neil Kinnock in favour of a radical new leader who will adopt a true Marxist-Leninist manifesto, including the expulsion of all American forces from England and the country's withdrawal from and repudiation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ).

Melinda left Maclean, and briefly lived with Philby in Moscow ; in 1968 she returned to Maclean.

Trevor-Roper declared in The Philby Affair ( 1968 ) that Philby was never in a position to undermine efforts by the Chief of German Military Intelligence Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to overthrow the Nazi regime and negotiate with the British government.

* The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason, and Secret Services, 1968.

* The 2005 John Birmingham novel Designated Targets features a cameo of Philby, under orders from Moscow to assist Otto Skorzeny's mission to assassinate Winston Churchill.

Shortly afterward, apparently fearing he might be abducted in Lebanon, Philby defected to the Soviet Union under cover of night aboard a Soviet freighter.

Philby was of the view that both British and the Saudi family's interests would be best served by uniting the Arabian peninsula under one government from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, with the Saudis supplanting the Hashemites as Islamic " Keepers of the Holy Places " while protecting shipping lanes on the Suez – Aden – Bombay route of the British Empire.

In Section V, the counter-intelligence section, Cairncross produced under the direction of Kim Philby an order of battle of the SS.

The most immediate consequence was that Philby came under suspicion of being the " Third Man " who had tipped off Maclean and Burgess, especially since he and Burgess were known to be close friends and had shared a house in Washington.

* 1951: meets Michael Straight in D. C .; Kim Philby warns Burgess that Maclean is under suspicion and will most likely be unmasked.

Other influential investigative reports included the exposure of Kim Philby as a Soviet spy and the publication of the diaries of former Labour Minister Richard Crossman, thereby risking prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.

Philby passed this information to the Soviets, and they were desperate for Maclean to get out, fearful that, in his current state, he would crack immediately under interrogation.

* 1951 Warned by Philby that he is under suspicion and will most likely be unmasked.