Donald Maclean
E872127
Donald Maclean was a British diplomat who became infamous as a member of the Cambridge spy ring that passed Western secrets to the Soviet Union during the early Cold War.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Donald Maclean canonical | 2 |
| Donald Duart Maclean | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10588887 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Donald Maclean Context triple: [Cambridge Spies, portrays, Donald Maclean]
-
A.
Donald MacLean
Donald MacLean is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward best known for his prolific scoring in the minor leagues and brief stints in the NHL.
-
B.
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was an American lawyer, businessman, and member of the Kennedy political family who was the sixth child of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy.
-
C.
Lyndon Lea
Lyndon Lea is a British private equity investor best known as the co-founder of Lion Capital, a firm focused on consumer brands.
-
D.
John Bruce
John Bruce was the short-lived son and heir of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, and his queen consort Elizabeth de Burgh.
-
E.
Lyndon Smith
Lyndon Smith is an American actress best known for her television roles in series such as "Parenthood" and "Public Morals."
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Donald Maclean Target entity description: Donald Maclean was a British diplomat who became infamous as a member of the Cambridge spy ring that passed Western secrets to the Soviet Union during the early Cold War.
-
A.
Donald MacLean
Donald MacLean is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward best known for his prolific scoring in the minor leagues and brief stints in the NHL.
-
B.
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was an American lawyer, businessman, and member of the Kennedy political family who was the sixth child of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy.
-
C.
Lyndon Lea
Lyndon Lea is a British private equity investor best known as the co-founder of Lion Capital, a firm focused on consumer brands.
-
D.
John Bruce
John Bruce was the short-lived son and heir of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, and his queen consort Elizabeth de Burgh.
-
E.
Lyndon Smith
Lyndon Smith is an American actress best known for her television roles in series such as "Parenthood" and "Public Morals."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
British diplomat
ⓘ
Soviet agent ⓘ member of the Cambridge Five ⓘ person ⓘ spy ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Anthony Blunt
ⓘ
John Cairncross ⓘ Kim Philby ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1913-05-25 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
England
ⓘ
London ⓘ
linked to:
London, England
United Kingdom ⓘ |
| causeOfNotoriety | betrayal of British and American diplomatic and military secrets ⓘ |
| citizenshipAfterDefection | Soviet ⓘ |
| coDefector | Guy Burgess ⓘ |
| deathDate | 1983-03-06 ⓘ |
| deathPlace |
Moscow
ⓘ
Soviet Union ⓘ |
| defectedTo | Soviet Union ⓘ |
| defectionYear | 1951 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Gresham's School
ⓘ
Trinity Hall, Cambridge NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| employer |
British Foreign Office
ⓘ
linked to:
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Soviet intelligence ⓘ
linked to:
Soviet intelligence community
|
| era | Cold War ⓘ |
| familyName |
Maclean
ⓘ
linked to:
MacLean
|
| father | Sir Donald Maclean ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
diplomacy
ⓘ
espionage ⓘ |
| fullName |
Donald Duart Maclean
ⓘ
linked to:
Donald Maclean
|
| givenName | Donald ⓘ |
| ideology | communism ⓘ |
| memberOf |
Cambridge Five
ⓘ
linked to:
Cambridge Spies
Cambridge spy ring ⓘ
linked to:
Cambridge Spies
|
| nationality | British ⓘ |
| notableFor |
defecting to the Soviet Union in 1951
ⓘ
passing Western secrets to the Soviet Union during the early Cold War ⓘ |
| occupation |
civil servant
ⓘ
diplomat ⓘ intelligence agent ⓘ |
| parliamentaryFamilyBackground | son of a Liberal Party politician ⓘ |
| recruitedAt |
University of Cambridge
ⓘ
linked to:
Cambridge University
|
| recruiterOrganization |
Soviet NKVD
ⓘ
linked to:
NKVD
|
| residenceAfterDefection | Moscow ⓘ |
| spouse | Melinda Marling ⓘ |
| workedAs |
First Secretary at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.
ⓘ
Head of the American Department at the British Foreign Office ⓘ Third Secretary at the British Embassy in Paris ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Donald Maclean Description of subject: Donald Maclean was a British diplomat who became infamous as a member of the Cambridge spy ring that passed Western secrets to the Soviet Union during the early Cold War.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Donald Maclean