George Ronald Richards
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Ron Richards OBE |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
George Ronald Richards 27 November 1905 Nottingham, England |
| Died | 25 September 1985 (aged 79) Victoria Park, Perth, Western Australia |
| Occupation | police officer, intelligence operative |
| Years active | 1928–1969 |
| Known for |
Petrov Affair Deputy Director-General of ASIO |
George Ronald Richards OBE (27 November 1905 – 25 September 1985), known as Ron Richards, was a British-born Australian police officer and intelligence operative. In 1953 he was closely involved in Operation Cabin 12, arranging the defection of Vladimir Petrov from the Soviet Union to Australia. In 1954, he was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), roughly equivalent to the FBI and MI5. He received the Order of the British Empire in 1957.
Richards was born on 27 November 1905, in Nottingham, England. He moved to Australia at age 21 and joined the Western Australia Police in 1928. He later worked in the Criminal Investigation Branch and, from September 1939 to 1942, led the Special Bureau and Aliens Office.
Richards began his intelligence career with a secondment to the Commonwealth Security Service until November 1945. In March 1942, he was key in the arrests of four members of the Australia First Movement in Perth, two of whom were convicted of conspiring to assist the enemy; the others were interned.
Richards was appointed Perth's regional director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 1949 after its formation on 16 March and became involved in the multi-national Venona project, looking into leaks of information to the Soviet Union discovered in diplomatic cables intercepted by the United States. In 1950, Richards became deputy director for Venona and went to work with MI5 in November 1952, after which he became ASIO's deputy director for New South Wales.
In 1953 and 1954, as deputy director for New South Wales, Richards was in charge of Operation Cabin 12, the arrangement of the defection of USSR spy Vladimir Petrov. Since February 1951, Petrov had been working for the KGB from the Canberra embassy. Michael Bialoguski was assigned to stay close to Petrov and report on his activities to ASIO, for whom he worked part-time. In time, Petrov started to hint to Bialoguski about defection. After Bialoguski was fired by ASIO, he told them on 23 November 1953 that Petrov and his wife wanted to defect but also threatened to go to the papers if he were not reinstated. It was Richards who warned the Director-General, Charles Spry, about the situation. On 27 November, Richards met Bialoguski and re-employed him on behalf of ASIO and briefed him on how he was to deal with Petrov. Richards reported frequently to Spry from this point until the end of the operation.
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