Published:
9:28 AM January 27, 2021
Donald Maclean, the former British diplomat, who was publicly exposed as a spy for the Russians in 1951, although US and British intelligence agencies had long suspected him.
- Credit: PA
A school s bid to erect blue plaques celebrating some of its famous former pupils has come under fire for not including enough women - and for honouring a spy who betrayed Britain.
The project aims to commemorate prominent Old Greshamian’s by linking them to the original building of Gresham’s School .
But the scheme has been criticised for including just one woman and Donald Maclean, one of the Cambridge Five spy ring who leaked British secrets to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and Cold War.
A top private school has been condemned for including Soviet spy Donald Maclean among a list of former pupils that it wants to honour with blue plaques.
Gresham s School has applied to put up plaques celebrating a selection of notable alumni on its Old School House building in Holt, Norfolk.
Those selected include The Crown actress Olivia Colman, Sir James Dyson, composer Benjamin Britten, poet WH Auden and hovercraft inventor Sir Christopher Cockerell.
The school, which costs £36,000-a-year to attend for those boarding, also hopes to honour Donald Maclean, a British diplomat who leaked government secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II.