Olga Gray

Olga Isabel Gray (28 November 1906 – 19 July 1990) was an English secretary and typist who acted as a double agent in the 1930s after being recruited by MI5 to infiltrate British communist groups.

Recruitment

Gray 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).

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. The Brandes then proceeded to bring stolen secret documents, largely from the Woolwich Arsenal, and maps to the apartment to be photographed and developed. The information provided by Gray, who testified under the code name "Miss X", led to the apprehension of Glading, Albert Williams, a hitherto-unidentified spy in the Woolwich Arsenal, and two other contacts within the arsenal: George Whomack and Charles Munday.

Later life After the successful trial of Glading, Williams, Whomack and Munday, which resulted in six years of penal servitude for Glading, Gray left the Security Service for a new life in Canada. Gray was last heard of living outside Toronto in the mid-1980s. She felt aggrieved at being 'dumped' by the service, with only a severance lump sum payment of £500. She died in 1990.