Allan Nunn May

Born in 1912, the London native attended Trinity College at Cambridge University from which he graduated with a Ph.D. in physics in1933. While a student, became a member of the Communist Party.

Joined the Tube Alloys Project, helping to perform research on the development of the atomic bomb in 1942. Sent to Canada to perform further atomic bomb research in Ottawa in 1944. Was approached by representatives of Soviet Colonel Nikolai Zabotin, a military attaché for the Soviet Embassy and an intelligence officer for the GRU.

Visited the Chicago-based atomic research center and met with Major-General Leslie Groves, the head of the Manhattan Project. In 1944. Returned several times to Chicago to conduct experiments with atomic piles and would meet several times with top scientists to discuss the design and development of an atomic bomb.

Provided information about the experimental test blasts in New Mexico and then delivered plutonium and uranium samples to Zabotin. In 1945, Igor Gouzenko, a cipher clerk in the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, defected to the Canadian government. Gouzenko helped to expose spy rings in the United States and Canada. May was placed under surveillance by MI5.