Houghton was born in Lincoln, England. He left school at 14 to become an errand boy and later joined the Royal Navy. By the end of World War II, he was a master-at-arms. After the war, he joined the civil service and in 1951 was attached to the staff of the naval attaché of the British embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Houghton dabbled in the black market, starting with coffee and moving on to medical drugs. That made him money and acquaintances but also led him to heavy drinking and the attention of the Polish Secret Police. Houghton's wife complained of domestic abuse, and there were concerns that he was mixing with the wrong people. In 1952, he was ordered home. Although some considered him a security risk, Houghton was appointed to the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment at Portland, where the Royal Navy would test equipment for undersea warfare. Houghton and his wife separated in 1956 and later divorced. He then began a relationship with Ethel Gee, known as "Bunty", a filing clerk who also worked at the base. His former wife warned that he was a security risk and had brought secrets home, but the claims were initially taken as resentment for the way that he had treated her.
Spying career
By 1956, Houghton was passing secrets to Polish spies, who sent them to the Soviets. They included details on submarine warfare. Gee had access to secrets and would pass them to Houghton, and he would photograph them. On the first Saturday of each month, Houghton would go to London, sometimes with Gee, and exchange packages with a contact. Houghton's drinking did not stop, and he was living far beyond his salary, which brought him under suspicion. MI5 placed him under surveillance and found other members of what was to be called the Portland Spy Ring. In his book Spycatcher, Peter Wright claimed that Houghton first came to MI5's attention when a Polish mole, codenamed Sniper, reported he had information about a Russian spy in the British Navy. According to Wright, Sniper did not know the name of the spy but said that it sounded like Huiton. Sniper also obtained documents that had been sent by the spy, helping MI5 to determine who had access to the documents. Houghton and Gee were among five spies arrested in London by Special Branch detectives on 7 January 1961. The others were Konon Molody, Morris and Lona Cohen, all of whom were professional spies. Houghton claimed at his trial that he had been blackmailed by the Poles and the Russians into spying for them. In Poland, he had had an affair with a woman black marketeer and was told that she would go to prison if he did not provide secrets. Threats were also made against Gee and his former wife, and he claimed that he was twice attacked by thugs. Houghton claimed that the information that he gave was newspaper cuttings and matters that were already in the public domain.
Later life
On 22 March 1961, Houghton and Gee were both sentenced to fifteen years in prison. They were released early on 12 May 1970, and they married in 1971. Around this period, Houghton wrote Operation Portland: The Autobiography of a Spy, which was published in 1972 by Hart-Davis. Houghton died in obscurity in Poole, Dorset in 1985.
A fairly accurate representation of Houghton and the Portland spy case was filmed in 1964, under the title Ring of Spies and starring Bernard Lee as Houghton. The film used many of the actual locations in the case, such as the place of the eventual arrest of Houghton, Gee and Gordon Lonsdale, opposite the Old Vic theatre in London, by members of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch.
