Redacted
Club Legend
I haven't said anything other than that two Wives of Soviet representatives in Australia were in Hospital.I can't follow how you have brought in the initials ROK as relating to the Somerton man?
Are you saying a spy called Aleksandra Vasilevna is ROK? How does ROK even come up in the SM case?
Also are you saying that this man's wife Anna, was in the Royal North Shore Hospital in 1946 when Jo Harkness was there? Then Anna got sent to Russia in 1948?
Her husband Aleksandra might have been the SM and had an affair with Jo Harkness? Did he go back to Russia or is there a record of him dying and what did he look like?
It was very unusual in the 1940, 50 or 60's for any unmarried woman to keep a baby. Adoption or Jo working as a nurse would have doctor contacts for D&C.
Even if a couple stayed together but weren't married when baby was born it's most likely the baby was adopted out. I know of two cases where this happened and the parents stayed together got married and had a family together after adopting their first baby out because they were not married.
In 1946 to have a baby as a single Mother would have been almost impossible. She left Sydney where she was working, didn't go to live with her parents or where they'd lived in Mentone but went to Adelaide. She had Prosper Thompson who also hadn't lived in Adelaide and was married to give her his name knowing the baby wasn't his.
Was she actually married to somebody else at this time - possibly the father? Or who or what was in Adelaide taking responsibility financial responsibility for her and Prosper having to start a business up from scratch?
I note that Prosper put an add in the paper offering 1,500 pounds cash to buy a house only a few days (apparently) before SM was discovered. It's possible the money came from SM who Ina Harvey said had booked a room at the Hotel she was working at during that time/
It's possible that one or both might of crossed paths with Jessica Harkness.
You can speculate about any subsequent relationship, recruitment or offer as a "fellow traveller" to help the Soviet agents, however there is no direct evidence of either, as yet. Conversely there's no evidence that she might of been recruited by Australian or Allied intelligence services to honey trap the Soviet agents either, although the possibility is enhanced by knowledge of her forming some sort of dalliance with Alf Boxall.
Maybe Alf was her handler? The opportunity to penetrate the Soviet spy ring must of been very tempting when such an opportunity arises.
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