William John Christopher Vassall

© National Portrait Gallery, London. Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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Vassall was an RAF photographer during the Second World War, who in 1946, worked as a clerk in the Admiralty. In 1954 he was appointed assistant to the British naval attaché in Moscow, where he was blackmailed by the KGB for his homosexuality. On return to London in 1956 he was assigned to the Admiralty's Naval Intelligence Division. He provided the Soviets with thousands of classified documents. Promoted in 1959, he conveyed Admiralty secrets concerning radar, torpedoes, and anti-submarine devices. The defection of Golitsin in 1961 gave the CIA information about Soviet agents in the West. In 1962 he was arrested and confessed. In October 1962 he was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment and released in 1972.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

William John Christopher Vassall

Date

1966

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 55.7 x W 35.2 cm

Accession number

6552

Acquisition method

Given by executors of the Estate of Eileen Hose, 1991

Work type

Painting

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