Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919[1] – 28 February 1990) was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe.

Wynne and Penkovsky were both arrested by the KGB in November 1962, when some of the information their endeavours produced was of assistance to the West during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[3] In November 1960, Wynne was recruited by MI6 and asked to make a sales trip to Moscow,[7] where he made contact with Oleg Penkovsky, a high-ranking GRU officer.

[7] Wynne later became an intermediary and courier for Penkovsky, smuggling top-secret Soviet intelligence to London on return from his frequent trips to the USSR.

Penkovsky was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad, though Wynne believed he died by suicide in prison.

[12] In April 1964, amid British concerns for his deteriorating health,[7] Wynne was released in exchange for the Soviet spy Konon Molody (also known as Gordon Lonsdale).

In these books, Wynne claimed to have been recruited by MI5 as early as the Second World War, long before his work with Penkovsky.