A 100-year-old, a Russian princess and a Cambridge ‘spy school’

A former teacher who once taught one of the Cambridge spies celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday, May 1 in Madrid.

Charles Courtenay Lloyd, a graduate of Selwyn College and a former Second World War Royal Navy officer, who contributed to the liberation of Norway, will be honoured with, among other tributes, greetings from King Harald V of Norway as well as the traditional card from the Queen.

He will also receive a card from the master of Selwyn after the college confirmed he is their oldest living pupil.

Mr Lloyd married a Russian princess and after the war, in 1948, he returned to Selwyn. After graduating, he became a teacher of Russian with the Joint Services School of Languages, a major Cold War initiative.

These courses were dubbed by the KGB as the ‘spy school’. It is known that Guy Burgess attempted to pass on information to the Soviets about the school.

Mr Lloyd taught at the Cambridge branch, which was set up by Dame Elizabeth Hill the then professor of Slavonic studies at the university. Other teachers on the courses included Churchill’s interpreter to Stalin, Arthur Birse. In all, about 5,000 national servicemen attended these courses around the country to learn Russian and meet the needs of Britain’s intelligence operations.

Mr Lloyd’s daughter, Masha, now based in Madrid, said: “His memory is amazing.

“There are not many Second World War veterans left to tell the story and I found he really was a spy when he was in Germany after the war, spying on the up-and-coming Communism Party for the British.

“When I looked into what he did at Cambridge, it was clear the Russians called it the ‘British Spy School’. It was Guy Burgess, one of the famous turncoats who was spying on us all because the people teaching there were not pro-Soviet.”

“My father speaks six languages,” she continued. “We never talked about my mother being a princess because people wouldn’t understand it. We are talking about the Cold War. My mother was in prison in Berlin during the war and I used to have nightmares about the Nazis coming.”

Masha has now written a biography about her father’s life. The book recalls the lives of her parents, which were most unconventional for England during that period.

Her mother was a penniless aristocratic Russian refugee when she met her father.