Alan Nunn May (May 2, 1911 — January 12, 2003) was a British atomic scientist and a spy who supplied secrets of British and American atomic bomb research to the Soviets during the Manhattan project.

He joined the Communist Party in the 1930s. He was unmasked as a spy in Canada and faced trial in 1946.

He was exposed when the Canadian Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected, and while not immediately arrested, he was ultimately charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act. He was sentenced to ten years hard labor , of which he served six.

Damage inflicted by Nunn May’s espionage was not on level with that of Klaus Fuchs, nor that of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and was over less time, but was the first such case, and revealed weaknesses in British and American security.

See also:

• Cold War espionage
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• Manhattan project
• Soviet atomic bomb project

External links and references

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