British diplomatic spy for Britain who defected to Russia on 5/26/1951, disappearing with his pal, Guy Burgess. On that fateful morning, they arrived at Saint-Malo, France on the overnight ferry from Southampton and while most passengers took the boat train to Paris, the two men had a leisurely breakfast with beer. By the time they had successfully missed the train, they hired a taxi to drive them to Rennes for a fare of 4500 francs and took a less obvious train to Paris – and were not seen again for five years. They resurfaced in Moscow in February 1956.
MacLean and Burgess eventually led to the Third Man, Kim Philby (suspected in 1951, defected 1963), the most durable and damaging of the group, and the Fourth, art historian Sir Anthony Blunt. MacLean, Philby and Blunt all went to Cambridge together and formed a spy ring as their “business.” From good families and well educated, they all were able to attain high government positions. There were several occasions when leaks became known, making him the subject of investigation and immense pressure. Since he was the first suspect, the ring had to remove him as a threat before he cracked. Burgess, who went with MacLean as an escort to the boat, was not supposed to leave with MacLean, but did so. Of the ring, Philby disappeared from Beirut several years later and went to Russia where he died in 1989 and was buried in Red Square. Blunt became an art critic and was later knighted.
Link to Wikipedia biography