Olga Gray

rdf:langString Olga Gray

rdf:langString Olga Gray

rdf:langString Manchester, England

rdf:langString United Kingdom 20px

rdf:langString British

rdf:langString Miss X

rdf:langString Intelligence officer, Secretary

rdf:langString Olga Gray (1906–1990) was a British secretary and typist. She was recruited as an MI5 infiltration agent by Maxwell Knight of B5(b) Section in 1931. Under the instructions of Knight, Gray moved to London and became a member of the Friends of the Soviet Union in 1932. Knight's reasoning behind Gray's becoming a member of a pro-Soviet organisation but not actually offering to spy on Britain for the Soviet Union, was that the most successful counterespionage agents were those who were approached by the enemy organisation. This plan met with success in 1934. Then, after a period of working for the Anti-War Movement, she was approached by Harry Pollitt and asked to undertake a 'special mission', on behalf of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Having accepted the request, Gray was sent to Paris on June 6, 1934; she was to rendezvous with Percy Glading, an officer of League Against Anti-Imperialism and a founding member of the CPGB. Following the meeting, Gray was instructed by Glading to go to India to deliver money and messages to insurgent elements. However, the cover story provided to Gray by the CPGB was so flimsy for a woman travelling alone during the monsoon season to India that she would easily rouse the suspicion of the authorities. Knight's B5(b) section, therefore, stepped in to concoct a plausible cover story to enable her to continue to gain evidence of CPGB espionage. On her return from India, Gray worked as Pollitt's personal secretary until she dropped all work with the communists in 1935 because of the strain of maintaining a double life.