Ormond Uren obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/23/ormond-uren

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Ormond Uren, my uncle, who has died aged 95, achieved brief notoriety when, in 1981, he was alleged by Nigel West to be a member of the infamous Soviet spy ring that included Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and their recruiter, Anthony Blunt.

West’s article prompted Ormond to write bitterly to the Times that if he had been among the privileged “Cambridge” set he “might now be in possession of immunity from prosecution like Blunt […] or be drinking vodka and Georgian wine in a luxury KGB ghetto in Moscow”, as Burgess, Philby and Maclean were able to do. “Instead, I was tried by court martial, cashiered and sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude.”

Ormond was jailed in 1943 for passing information on his work in the Hungarian section of the Special Operations Executive to Douglas Springhall, national organiser of the Communist party of Great Britain and a Soviet agent. Ormond always maintained that he did not know Springhall was a Soviet agent, and that his purpose in contacting Springhall, whom he met just once, was simply to join the CP discreetly. There is no indication that he passed on anything very useful to the Russians.

His arrest just four days before he was due to be parachuted into Hungary to make contact with the opposition – a mad, doomed operation, in his opinion – probably saved his life. However, his conviction, which led to inclusion on a government blacklist after his release in 1947, barred the path to what might have been a brilliant academic career. His exceptional abilities and intellect were instead exercised privately, at home and with friends.

Ormond was born in Boulder, Western Australia, the first child of Myrtle (nee Bunting), a teacher, and Albert Rudolph “Dolph” Uren, a Presbyterian minister. The family moved frequently in pursuit of Dolph’s career and studies: to Victoria, Australia, where sisters Margaret and Kirstine were born; to Dunblane in Scotland; Canada; and subsequently Hayle in Cornwall.

At 11, Ormond was sent to board at Ackworth, a Quaker school in Yorkshire. Finally the family settled in Edinburgh, where Ormond attended George Watson’s academy and then Edinburgh University, studying French and Spanish.

In 1937, aged 18, Ormond embarked on an affair with a Hungarian countess and spent a year on her estate, picking up fluent Hungarian. At the outbreak of war he enlisted and in May 1940 he was commissioned a captain in the Highland Light Infantry. Two years later he was recruited by the SOE for its Hungarian operations.

After his release from prison (where fellow inmates included Ivor Novello and William Douglas-Home), Ormond was introduced to Rose (nee Goldblum), a Frenchwoman who was visiting a friend in Edinburgh. He went to live with her in Paris, where they married in 1949, returning to Edinburgh for the university terms.

In 1950, after taking the best first in his year from Edinburgh, Ormond went to Paris to join Rose and their baby son, Laurent. There he took a variety of interpreting jobs, only to be summarily deported back to England (the blacklist again) just after the birth of his second son, François, in 1952.

There followed a number of unsatisfying teaching posts before, in middle age, appointment as a lecturer and researcher in linguistics at Birkbeck College, University of London, where Ormond remained until retirement in 1983. Like many others, he left the Communist party in 1956 in protest over the Soviet invasion of Hungary.

Fluent in French, Spanish, Russian and Hungarian, Ormond remained a voracious reader and crossword enthusiast to the end of his life. Into his 80s he continued to ski and to practise yoga and classical guitar.

Rose died in 2005, and François three years later. Ormond is survived by Laurent, his sister, Kirstine, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.