Donald (Duart) Maclean

British diplomat and Soviet intelligence officer, born in London, UK. He studied at Cambridge at the same time as Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, and Kim Philby, and was similarly influenced by Communism. He joined the diplomatic service in 1934, and was recruited by Soviet intelligence as an agent. During his diplomatic career he held the post of Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Washington, where he made information available to the Soviet Union on the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He also served as secretary of the Combined Policy on Atomic Development, and finally (1950) as head of the American Department at the Foreign Office, where he had access to highly classified information, especially about the progress of the war in Korea. He was warned by Philby (1951) that he was under suspicion, and disappeared with Burgess, reappearing in Russia in 1956; later (1979) it transpired that he had escaped with the help of Blunt.

Born in Farnworth, Bolton, Lancashire, he was the eldest son of John Maclean, a cordwainer originally of Kilmoluag, in the Inner Hebrides, and his wife Agnes Macmellin Maclean.

He was knighted and became a Privy Councillor in 1916, and was Leader of the Liberal Parliamentary Party from 1918 to 1922, as the nominal leader of the Liberal Party, Herbert Henry Asquith had lost his seat in the House of Commons.

Maclean is buried with his wife, Gwendolen, and his eldest son, Ian, in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Penn, Buckinghamshire.