11 Facts About Len Beurton

Leon Charles Beurton was an English Communist who worked as an agent for the Soviet intelligence services.

Len Beurton was born in Barking, then just outside London on its east side.

Len Beurton's father, who at one stage worked as a waiter, called Leon Beurton, had been born in France, but he had taken British nationality and, round about the time his son was born, married Florence S Smith.

Len Beurton used Ursula's genuine family name, Kuczynski.

On 23 February 1940 Leon Len Beurton married, as her second husband, Ursula Kuczynski.

Len Beurton was instructed to divorce her first husband, Rudolf Hamburger, and marry one of her English co-agents in order to obtain a British passport: Foote had declined the honour, and Moscow assured Kuczynski that if she married the younger man she could divorce Beurton once she had her British passport.

In December 1940 Mrs Len Beurton relocated from Switzerland to Britain, arriving, on 4 January 1941 accompanied by her two children.

Len Beurton's father had been living in England, since 1933, and initially she stayed with him at her parents' Oxford home in the Woodstock Road.

Len Beurton nevertheless remained in Switzerland, presumably supporting Sandor Rado's espionage work, for another couple of years.

Len Beurton took the children with her, but left Len behind because, as she explained, he had a broken leg.

Len Beurton became blind, lame, deaf, and increasingly frail and dependent for his day to day survival on his wife who had, in the meantime, retired from espionage and reinvented herself as a successful author.