Melita Norwood, English civil servant and spy (d. 2005)
Melita Stedman Norwood (née Sirnis; 25 March 1912 – 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant, Communist Party of Great Britain member and KGB spy.
Born to a British mother and Latvian father, Norwood is most famous for supplying the Soviet Union with state secrets concerning the development of atomic weapons from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, where she worked for 40 years. Despite the high strategic value of the information she passed to the Soviets, she refused to accept any financial rewards for her work. She rejected the Soviets' offer of a pension, and argued that her disclosures of classified work helped to avoid the possibility of a third world war involving the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union.In The Mitrokhin Archive: The K.G.B. in Europe and the West, co-authored by Christopher Andrew, she is described as "both the most important British female agent in KGB history and the longest serving of all Soviet spies in Britain." She is also described by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), as "a real heroine" and "a consistent fighter in defence of peace and socialism." She was also widely known as a life-long supporter of the Morning Star newspaper, and its predecessor the Daily Worker.In popular culture she is most known for her depiction in the 2018 spy drama Red Joan, whose protagonist was loosely inspired by Norwood's life.