Geoffrey Harrison

Sir Geoffrey Wedgwood Harrison (18 July 1908 – 12 April 1990) was a British diplomat, who served as the United Kingdom's ambassador to Brazil, Iran and the Soviet Union. Harrison's tenure in Moscow was terminated in 1968, when he was recalled to London after his admission to the Foreign Office that he had an affair with his Russian maid, later revealed as a KGB "honey trap" operation.^[2][3]

Early life and education

Harrison was born in Southsea, Hampshire. His parents were Thomas Edmund Harrison, a commander in the Royal Navy, who was a grandson of Josiah Wedgwood III, and Maud Winifred Godman. He was educated at Winchester College in Hampshire and then at King's College, Cambridge. He joined the Foreign Office in 1932 and was posted to Japan and Germany before the outbreak of World War II.^[4] On 2 July 1935, he married Amy Katherine Clive (the daughter of Sir Robert Clive, the British ambassador to Japan) at the embassy in Tokyo.^[5]

Diplomatic career

In October 1932, Harrison was appointed as a third secretary in His Majesty's Diplomatic Service,^[6] and in October 1937, he was promoted to second secretary.^[7] In July 1942, he was acting first secretary.^[8]

As a junior diplomat at the Foreign Office, Harrison drafted a memorandum, "The Future of Austria", which greatly contributed to the notion of Austria as an independent state. Harrison also contributed to the British draft declaration on Austria for the 1943 Moscow Declaration.^[9]

He was also the principal drafter of Article XII of the Potsdam Agreement, which concerned the expulsion of ethnic Germans from central and eastern Europe after World War II.^[10]

On 1 October 1956, Harrison was granted his first ambassadorship, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Brazil.^[11] On 3 November 1958, he was transferred to Tehran as Ambassador to Iran/Persia.^[12] Between 1963 and 1965, Harrison was based in London as Deputy Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office.^[13]

On 27 August 1965, Harrison was appointed as ambassador to the Soviet Union.^[14] In 1968, he engaged in a brief affair with a Russian chambermaid who was working at the British Embassy. Harrison recalled not asking or knowing if she worked for the KGB, but he said that it was assumed that every Soviet employee at the embassy worked or was an agent for the Soviet secret service. When security concerns arose over the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, and after he had been sent incriminating photographs taken by the KGB,^[15] Harrison informed the Foreign Office of his indiscretion, which immediately terminated his appointment and recalled him to Britain. Harrison revealed the affair to The Sunday Times newspaper in 1981.^[16]

The journalist and author John Miller, who was part of the British press corps in the Soviet Union at the time of Harrison's ambassadorship, revealed more details of the affair in his memoir All Them Cornfields and Ballet in the Evenings: Miller named the maid with whom Harrison was involved as Galya Ivanov and said he was told that by a Russian contact that she was not only a KGB agent but also the sister of Eugene Ivanov, the Soviet naval attaché in Britain involved in the Profumo affair.^[17]

Honours

Harrison was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1955 New Year Honours.^[18]

In the 1968 Birthday Honours, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order (GCMG).^[19]

On 6 March 1961, Harrison was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO).^[20]

References

1. ^ "Obituary for Geoffrey Wedgwood GCMG Harrison KCVO". Retrieved 12 September 2024.
2. ^ West, Nigel (2007). Historical dictionary of cold war counterintelligence. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0810864634.
3. ^ "Journalist Regales With Insider Tales of Soviet Life". The St. Petersburg Times. 20 September 2010. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
4. ^ International Who's Who 1990–91. Europa Publications. 1990. ISBN 0946653585.
5. ^ "Ambassador's Daughter to Marry". The Straits Times. 21 June 1936. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
6. ^ No. 33888. 2 December 1932. p. 7663.
7. ^ No. 34497. 29 March 1938. p. 2085.
8. ^ No. 35990. 23 April 1943. p. 1871.
9. ^ Steininger, Rolf (2008). Austria, Germany, and the Cold War : from the Anschluss to the State Treaty 1938–1955. English ed. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1845453268.
10. ^ Zayas, Alfred-Maurice de (1994). A terrible revenge: the ethnic cleansing of the east European Germans, 1944–1950. 1st pbk. ed. with new material ed. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312121598.
11. ^ No. 40930. 20 November 1956. p. 6575.
12. ^ No. 41579. 19 December 1958. p. 7766.
13. ^ Louis, S.R. Ashton, Wm Roger (2004). East of Suez and the Commonwealth: 1964–1971. 1st ed. London: The Stationery Office, published for the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the University of London. ISBN 011290582X.
14. ^ No. 43803. 29 October 1965. p. 10076.
15. ^ Lilleker, Darren G. (2004). Against the Cold War : the history and political traditions of pro-Sovietism in the British Labour Party 1945–89. London: Tauris. p. 9. ISBN 1850434719.
16. ^ "Former diplomat admits affair with maid". Lakeland Ledger. 22 February 1981. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
17. ^ Miller, John (2010). All Them Cornfields and Ballet in the Evening. Hodgson Press. pp. 260–261. ISBN 978-1906164126.
18. ^ No. 40366. 31 December 1954. p. 5.
19. ^ No. 44600. 31 May 1968. p. 4.
20. ^ No. 42305. 17 March 1961. p. 2057.

External links

• Wilson Visits Podgorny, 1968, British Pathé film of Sir Geoffrey Harrison with Prime Minister Harold Wilson, meeting Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny