ONE of the KGB's most notorious British spies has died and been privately buried, it was revealed yesterday.
John Vassall, who was jailed in 1962 but changed his name to John Phillips on his release 10 years later, died two weeks ago after suffering a heart attack outside Baker Street Tube station in London.
More than 100 people attended his funeral service at the Brompton Oratory in Knightsbridge, his solicitor, Mr Peter Kingshill, said.
In later life, Vassall, who was 71 when he died, had attempted to put behind him the huge controversy which erupted when he was found to have been spying for the KGB for seven years.
His treachery began when he was a junior Naval attache to the British Embassy in Moscow from 1954 to 1956 and was blackmailed into spying for the Russians after being photographed with a homosexual partner.
After he returned from Moscow, he continued spying while he worked for Thomas Galbraith, a junior Minister at the Admiralty, as an assistant private secretary. When suspicions were finally raised that Vassall was living beyond his means, his flat was raided and incriminating documents were found.
After a high-profile trial, he was sent to jail and Galbraith, then MP for Glasgow Hillhead, resigned.
Vassall disappeared from public view after his release and tried to live a quiet life working for the British Records Association and he turned to religion.
Mr Kingshill, who had known Vassall for about 20 years, said: ``He was a very well liked, popular person. There were more than 100 people at his funeral., which was a Latin Mass.''
Prisoners' rights advocate Lord Longford, who befriended Vassall in later life, told the Evening Standard in London yesterday: ``I didn't judge him on his past but I was very fond of him.
``I admire the way he pulled his life together after what happened to him.. I had a great deal of affection for him.''
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