440 • REES, GORONWY
Radio’’ appeared as an appendix in volume 4 of theBritish Intelli-
gence in the Second World Warseries edited by ProfessorSir Harry
HinsleyandAnthony Simkins.REES, GORONWY.Until thedefectionof his friendGuy Burgess,
Goronwy Rees was regarded by most of his friends as a lovable and
highly intelligent Welsh rascal. Suddenly, overnight, his life changed
and his friends turned on him, not so much because they believed he
was still a Marxist or was implicated in espionage, but because of his
bizarre behavior in seeking to exploit the situation.
Born in Aberystwyth, Rees went to New College and All Souls,
Oxford, and while still at university came under the spell of Burgess,
who confirmed his commitment to Communism. They planned to
visit the Soviet Union together but Rees instead began work on the
Manchester Guardianand theSpectator. However, Burgess did con-
fide in him that he was a Soviet agent, and thatAnthony Bluntwas
also part of his ring.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Rees joined a territo-
rial unit as a private soldier but in 1940 was sent to Sandhurst and
received a commission in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Thereafter he
spent much time on the staff in London, occasionally visiting Bur-
gess atLord Rothschild’s flat. In 1944 he was transferred as an in-
telligence officer to the planning staff of the 21st Army Group in
preparation for the Normandy landings. It was his duty to obtain sig-
natures from Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay and Air Marshal Sir Traf-
ford Leigh-Mallory on the final set of orders that set Operation
overlordinto play. Rees recalls that moments before adding his
name to the historic document, Leigh-Mallory proposed several
slight alterations, and he was obliged to tell the most senior Royal Air
Force officer in the country that it was now too late for amendments.
At the end of the war, Rees went with the occupation forces to
Germany and then joined theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS). Ac-
cording to his autobiography,A Chapter of Accidents(1971), Rees
became increasingly concerned that both Burgess andDonald Mac-
leanwere still secret supporters of theComintern, and he reported
this toDavid Footmanas soon as the news broke that Burgess had
disappeared.
Five years after these events, as principal of the University College