Nicholas Elliott; British Agent Confronted Soviet Spy

Nicholas Elliott, 77, the British agent who confronted his colleague Kim Philby with evidence that he was a Soviet spy in 1963. As an agent for MI-6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, Elliott defended Philby when suspicions were raised in the 1950s. Philby was cleared in 1955, but later confessed when conclusive evidence came to light. Philby then fled to Moscow, where he died in 1988. As one of the most highly placed Soviet moles within British intelligence, he was believed to have betrayed numerous Western agents. In 1968, Elliott retired from intelligence and was appointed a director of Lonrho, an international conglomerate. He left Lonrho in 1973. In London on Wednesday of cancer.