born 1911, Devonport, Devon, Eng.
died Aug. 30, 1963, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.
British diplomat and Soviet spy.
At the University of Cambridge in the 1930s, he became part of a group of young men, including Donald Maclean (1913–83), who shared a disdain for capitalist democracy. They were recruited by Soviet intelligence operatives and supplied information from their positions, mainly in the British foreign office (Maclean from 1934, Burgess from 1944). Maclean's post with the British embassy in Washington, D.C., enabled him to pass secret information about NATO to the Soviets; Burgess also served in Washington. In 1951 both men were warned by their colleague Kim Philby that an investigation was closing in on Maclean. With the aid of Anthony Blunt , they fled England and vanished, then surfaced in Moscow in 1956.