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JOHN PHILBY, the eldest son of the Russian spy Kim Philby, unmasked in 1963 as a double agent, was a 19-year old art student when his father was exposed as a traitor. His alcoholic mother had never hinted at her husband's treachery and, although John had never suspected his father, when the news broke he felt something approaching quiet approval.
Kim Philby was the senior officer of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in Washington in the early 1950s, working with the CIA and FBI, when ordered to investigate Donald Maclean, another double agent who had been passing British secrets to the Soviets. Philby and Maclean's fellow spy, Guy Burgess, were intimate friends; once tipped off by Philby, Maclean and Burgess fled to Moscow.
Philby, suspected of being the so-called Third Man, swore that he did not know Maclean. Although forced to step down from his MI6 post, he maintained links to the Secret Intelligence Service while Middle East correspondent for The Observer newspaper. Shortly before being reinterviewed by British Intelligence in 1963, he defected to Moscow. For years he had sabotaged Allied missions behind the Iron Curtain and had sent dozens of agents to their deaths.
John Philby was shocked to learn from a newspaper placard of his father's defection.
Finding himself the son of Britain's most reviled man, he was surprised to discover how like his father he was. Of Philby's five children, John was the closest, visiting him in the former Soviet Union at least 12 times.
Like his father, John enjoyed the company of women and drank and smoked heavily. But unlike his father, buried a hero in Russia, John Philby led a low-profile life, running his own successful joinery business in London.
John David Philby, who has died at 65, was born under a kitchen table during an air raid on London. His father, Harold ''Kim'' Philby, was a product of the British ruling class but, like his own father, the explorer St John Philby, contemptuous of it.
John's mother was his father's mistress, Aileen Furse, whom he married in 1946 after his divorce from his first wife. When John was five and Kim the MI6 station chief in Istanbul, Guy Burgess came for a holiday. Resenting Burgess's close relationship with her husband, Aileen set fire to the living room, suffering serious burns. She was later sent to a Swiss clinic.
In Washington, Burgess, second secretary at the British embassy, lodged with the Philbys. Years later, Kim Philby told his son that Burgess had kept his KGB revolver and camera hidden under John's bed.
Back in London, John's prep school classmates were enthralled to think his father might be a spy, and John basked in the reflected glow of notoriety.
But when the Foreign Secretary, Harold Macmillan, announced that he had no reason to conclude that Philby had betrayed his country, the headmaster told him: ''Good news, Philby. Your father's been exonerated.''
When John's mother died in 1957, none of her children was invited to the funeral, and he never knew where she was buried. They went to live with an aunt and uncle. John completed his education at Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire, before studying painting and sculpture, then taking up joinery.
He valued his anonymity - but he never changed his name. When people, noting his name, asked, ''No relation, I hope?'' he would reply: ''Oh yes, I'm his son.''
Kim Philby appeared to admire his eldest son for making his own, very different, way in life, working with his hands and brain.
The master spy never explained his treachery to his son but the two became good friends and travelled extensively in the Soviet Union, accompanied by KGB minders. The Russians flew John and his sister, Josephine, to Moscow for their father's funeral in 1988.
John Philby's three marriages had all ended. He is survived by a daughter, the journalist Charlotte Philby.
Telegraph, London
Kim Philby was the senior officer of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in Washington in the early 1950s, working with the CIA and FBI, when ordered to investigate Donald Maclean, another double agent who had been passing British secrets to the Soviets. Philby and Maclean's fellow spy, Guy Burgess, were intimate friends; once tipped off by Philby, Maclean and Burgess fled to Moscow.
Philby, suspected of being the so-called Third Man, swore that he did not know Maclean. Although forced to step down from his MI6 post, he maintained links to the Secret Intelligence Service while Middle East correspondent for The Observer newspaper. Shortly before being reinterviewed by British Intelligence in 1963, he defected to Moscow. For years he had sabotaged Allied missions behind the Iron Curtain and had sent dozens of agents to their deaths.
John Philby was shocked to learn from a newspaper placard of his father's defection.
Finding himself the son of Britain's most reviled man, he was surprised to discover how like his father he was. Of Philby's five children, John was the closest, visiting him in the former Soviet Union at least 12 times.
Like his father, John enjoyed the company of women and drank and smoked heavily. But unlike his father, buried a hero in Russia, John Philby led a low-profile life, running his own successful joinery business in London.
John David Philby, who has died at 65, was born under a kitchen table during an air raid on London. His father, Harold ''Kim'' Philby, was a product of the British ruling class but, like his own father, the explorer St John Philby, contemptuous of it.
John's mother was his father's mistress, Aileen Furse, whom he married in 1946 after his divorce from his first wife. When John was five and Kim the MI6 station chief in Istanbul, Guy Burgess came for a holiday. Resenting Burgess's close relationship with her husband, Aileen set fire to the living room, suffering serious burns. She was later sent to a Swiss clinic.
In Washington, Burgess, second secretary at the British embassy, lodged with the Philbys. Years later, Kim Philby told his son that Burgess had kept his KGB revolver and camera hidden under John's bed.
Back in London, John's prep school classmates were enthralled to think his father might be a spy, and John basked in the reflected glow of notoriety.
But when the Foreign Secretary, Harold Macmillan, announced that he had no reason to conclude that Philby had betrayed his country, the headmaster told him: ''Good news, Philby. Your father's been exonerated.''
When John's mother died in 1957, none of her children was invited to the funeral, and he never knew where she was buried. They went to live with an aunt and uncle. John completed his education at Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire, before studying painting and sculpture, then taking up joinery.
He valued his anonymity - but he never changed his name. When people, noting his name, asked, ''No relation, I hope?'' he would reply: ''Oh yes, I'm his son.''
Kim Philby appeared to admire his eldest son for making his own, very different, way in life, working with his hands and brain.
The master spy never explained his treachery to his son but the two became good friends and travelled extensively in the Soviet Union, accompanied by KGB minders. The Russians flew John and his sister, Josephine, to Moscow for their father's funeral in 1988.
John Philby's three marriages had all ended. He is survived by a daughter, the journalist Charlotte Philby.
Telegraph, London
