Ace of Spies
Page 30
33. The first Odessa General Census, XLVII, Table 24, pp.152–53.
34. OGPU File no. 249856.
35. Mikhail Rosenblum studied chemistry for two semesters in the physico-mathematical department of Novorossiysk University, before leaving to study medicine at the Imperial Medical Surgery Academy in St Petersburg. Reilly claimed to have studied in the same department for two semesters before leaving the university.
36. Extract from manuscript by Margaret Reilly dated 13 November 1931 (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
37. Box 182, XIIIh, files 7 and 10 (index cards), 1891-1895, Ochrana Collection, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California.
38. Sidney Reilly – The True Story, Michael Kettle, p.14.
39. Ibid.
40. Felitsia Vladimirovna Neufeldt (née Rosenblum) was the daughter of Grigory Rosenblum’s brother Vladimir. She lived in Warsaw from 1900 and was widowed in 1911. She, along with her sons Ira and Marek, and their respective families, were confined in the Warsaw ghetto by the Nazis during the Second World War and died in the Treblinka death camp between July 1942 and June 1943.
41. Iron Maze, Gordon Brook-Shepherd (Macmillan, 1998), p.15/16.
42. The unrest was sparked by a government decision concerning army conscription. Student opposition followed, accompanied by political demands.
43. Fond 2, Inventory 2, Case 1241, ‘List of foreign passports issued (1892– 1899)’, Odessa City Governor’s Office, contains a list of around 2,400 names. To obtain a passport to travel abroad, a Jew would need to obtain the following documents: ordinary citizen’s identity card, certificate from the chief of police confirming that there was no objection to the applicant leaving the country, certification of regimentation with military enlistment registration office, or notice of completion of military service, and a Treasury certificate showing the payment of a passport application fee of fifteen roubles.
44. Reilly’s Deuxième Bureau file 28779/25 was among French intelligence material taken by the Germans to Berlin after the fall of France in 1940. The Russians, in turn, took the consignment to Moscow in 1945. Between December 1993 and May 1994 some 10,326 cartons of material weighing twenty tons were returned to the French by the Russians. The French maintained that 10,000 boxes of material, including file 28779/25, still remained in Russian hands. After a hiatus of five years the Russians returned a further 900 metres length of archives in 2000. A number of files, however, including 28779/25, remain in the still restricted Osobyi Archiv at the Russian State Military Archive, Moscow: Fond 7k, opis 2, delo 3047; Fond 7k, opis 1, delo 104, pp.256–64; Fond 198k, opis 2, delo 1057, p.68.
45. According to file F7 12894 (Police reports on Russian refugees in Paris) and F7 12904/7 (Anarchists in France and abroad – 1892/1923) in the National Archives, Paris, the 4th and 5th districts of Paris were the principal areas where Russian refugees, Jews and students resided during the 1890s. These two districts also feature in three other files, F7 12591/12596/12600 (Description sheets for aliens and suspects 188/1907).
46. Arthur Abrahams was the son of Michael Abrahams, founder of the firm Michael Abrahams, Sons & Co. In London, Reilly used a number of lawyers including Michael Abrahams, Sons & Co., Willett & Sandford and Robert Carter. This ensured that no one lawyer had a complete awareness of his activities. Paris city records for 1896 indicate that Abrahams had a Paris office and flat at 23 Rue Taitbout.
47. Albert Mansions and Victoria Mansions were both upmarket apartment blocks completed in 1894. Albert Mansions stood on the corner of Rosetta Street and South Lambeth Road. Rosenblum took over the tenancy of 50 Albert Mansions from William Gould. Although the postal address for No. 50 was Rosetta Street, the address on Rosenblum’s notepaper was ‘South Lambeth Road’, which he clearly felt to be a more prestigious address. Adapting addresses in this manner was to be a trait of his.
48. 9 Bury Court, in the Parish of St Andrew Undershaft, in the City of London, was leased to Albert Adolph, who sub-let the premises to Rosenblum and three other occupiers (City of London Rates Valuation Lists 1891–1896, Section 13).
49. According to the 1897 List of Officers and Fellows of the Chemical Society, p.53, Rosenblum was elected a Fellow on 18 June 1896.
50. According to the 1898 Register of Fellows, Associates and Students of The Institute of Chemistry, p.85, Rosenblum was admitted a Fellow on 4 March 1897.
51. The Institute’s charter (clause 5, p.15) states that it ‘rests with the Council to determine in each case whether the candidate shall be required to pass either or both the intermediate or final examinations’. He would also have been required to produce a satisfactory certificate of moral character. The certificate and identity of the person who perjured themself in providing it, is no longer in the archives of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
52. William Fox’s place of business was 39 Mincing Lane in the City of London, in close vicinity of Rosenblum & Co. at Bury Court. Fox was also Rosenblum’s neighbour at 52 Albert Mansions, Lambeth (Electoral Register 1896/1897, Parliamentary, County and Parochial Electors in Kennington, Vauxhall Ward, Polling District No. 5).
53. Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.27/28.
54. Ibid.
55. Lithuania State Historical Archives, Fond 1226, Schedule 1, File 167, (born Kovno 17 April 1869, Levi son of Mojsej Bramson and Leja daughter of Jakov).
56. Report by V Ratayev (Ochrana, Paris), to Department of Police, St Petersburg, 24 February 1903, Fond 102, Inventory 316, 1898, delo 1, chast 16, litera A, listy 84ob-85, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow.
57. Interview between E L Voynich biographer Carol Spero and Winifred Gaye (Ethel Voynich’s stepdaughter), Bath, Somerset, 1992
58. Rare People and Rare Books, E. Millicent Sowerby (Constable, 1967), p.21.
59. Rosenblum’s letter of application, his character reference and records of his attendance are to be found in the British Museum Archives (Sigmund Georgjevich Rosenblum– ticket number A63702.12044). Four books in particular made available to Reilly suggest the nature of his research: Blagden, Sir Charles, Some observations on ancient inks (1787); Merrifield, Mary P., Original treatises on the arts of painting. 2 vol. (1849); A Booke of secrets, shewing divers waies to make and prepare all sorts of Inke and Colours, Trans. W.P. London (1596); William Linton, Ancient and modern colours (1852). It should also be noted that Wilfred Voynich held a reader’s ticket (No. A53962 2897). British Museum records indicate that the ticket was obtained on the recommendation of Sergei Stepniak.
60. Police Orders for 10 April and 5 May 1893; PRO MEPO 7/55, pp.264 and 340.
61. PRO MEPO 4/342 (Register of Leavers) and MEPO 21/32 (Pension Register).
62. CID, Behind the Scenes at Scotland Yard, H.L. Adams, p.167.
63. Memorandum dated 28 April 1896 (The Melville Papers).
64. Sir Edward Bradford, chief commissioner to the Home Office, 28 April 1902, PRO HO 45/10254.
65. Vladimir Krymov, who knew Reilly in St Petersburg before the First World War, related in Portraits of Unusual People, that Reilly was dubbed ‘the man who knew everything’ due to his unique ability to keep his ear to the ground.
66. Arthur Wood of the Daily Telegraph and James Hogan of the Daily Graphic had rooms at 3 Cursitor Street in 1898.
67. ‘The question as to the permissibility of advertising is one which still agitates the minds of our members, notwithstanding that the censors gave a no uncertain pronouncement on the matter as long ago as 1893, and the attention of members was again drawn to it in December 1895. I am sorry that the expression of opinion is felt by some among us as forming a bar to the legitimate practice of their profession; a profession which a minority – and I trust a small minority – of our members would perhaps unconsciously reduce to the level of a trade. To my mind, to advertise or to tout for practice is degrading, and a virtual acknowledgement that he who does so cannot compete on equal terms with his fellows. In no other professions in this country are such practices tolerated’ (the ad
dress of the president, Dr Thomas Stevenson, FRCP, to the 12th Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Chemistry, 1 March 1898, contained in the 1898 Proceedings, p.25).
68. Entry 379, Register of births in the District of Gorey in the County of Wexford, Ireland. Margaret Callaghan daughter of Edward and Anne Callaghan (née Noctor), 1 January 1874.
69. Entry 55, Register of Marriages in the District of Gorey in the County of Wexford, Ireland. Edward Callaghan, fisherman, and Anne Naughter, 27 February 1870 at the Catholic Chapel of St Michael.
70. Entry 385, Register of Births in the District of Gorey in the County of Wexford, Ireland. James Callaghan, son of Edward and Anne Callaghan (née Naughter), 24 February 1872. He died on 15 March 1930: Entry 248, Register of Deaths in the Registration District of Manchester South, Sub-district of Didsbury in the County of Manchester CB.
71. Entry 149, 1895 Register of Marriages in the District of Paddington in the County of London. Hugh Thomas and Margaret Callaghan, 19 February 1895.
72. Entry 186, 1898 Register of Marriages in the District of Holborn in the County of London. Sigmund Rosenblum and Margaret Thomas, 22 August 1898.
73. Entry 478, 1903 Register of Marriages in the District of Islington in the County of London. Joseph Bell and Violet Pannett, 4 June 1903. Entry 281, 1910 Register of Marriages in the District of Islington in the County of London. Charles Cross and Edith Pannett, 24 August 1910. Henry Freeman Pannett was a Royal Mail official who was an associate of William Melville from the late 1890s up to his retirement in 1908.
74. Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.32; Sidney Reilly – The True Story, Michael Kettle, p.15; Memoirs of a British Agent, Robert Bruce Lockhart, p.323; Deadly Illusions, John Costello and Oleg Tsarev, p.22; Iron Maze, Gordon Brook- Shepherd, p.18; Spies, Jay Robert Nash (M. Evans and Company, New York, 1997), p.411; Master Spy, Edward Van Der Rhoer, p.6.
75. Parish Register, Parish of Ballygarret, County of Wexford, 6 September 1845; Baptism of Edward Callaghan son of John and Elisa Callaghan (née Quinn) – sponsors Paul Byrne and Mary Callaghan (National Library of Ireland, Ballygarret Parish Register, Microfiche P4255).
76. Foreign Office Regulations Respecting Passports (3) – ‘Naturalised British Subject’, he will be so designated in his passport, which shall be issued subject to the qualification mentioned in the 7th clause of the Act 33 Vic; c.14.
77. Entry 17, Register of Births in the District of Belmullett in the County of Mayo, Ireland. Sidney Reilly son of Michael and Mary Reilly (née Barret), 1 February 1878.
78. Entry 48, Register of Marriages, St George’s Catholic Church, St Saviour’s, Southwark, Surrey, between William Melville and Catherine Reilly, 20 February 1879; according to the 1901 Census (Shragh, County Mayo, 145/DED Derryloughlin 9 1-5), Catherine’s brother John and his family were still living in the area at the turn of the century.
79. Extract from manuscript dated 11 November 1931 (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
80. PRO FO 72/2048, Report dated 10 February 1897.
81. By liquidating, it must be assumed that Margaret was referring to a sale or disposal of the contents of the Manor House. According to Land Title MX80076 at the Harrow and District Land Registry, the property, which stood on the corner of Buck Lane and Kingsbury Road was owned by Edward Nelson Haxell, who from 1895 let the house to tenants. The house was legally known as Kingsbury House. There were, in fact, two properties known as Kingsbury House in the 1890s, the other being part of the Stud Farm complex on the opposite side of Kingsbury Green. With the confusion of two Kingsbury House names, Hugh Thomas used his own chosen name, The Manor House, when he became the tenant in 1897. The lease to the property was sold on 24 June 1898 to the Countess of Dundonald, who changed the name of the house to The Grange. Neither should this property be confused with Kingsbury Manor, which stands today in Roe Green Park. This latter property was built in 1899 for the Duchess of Sutherland. Its name changed from ‘The Cottage’ to Kingsbury Manor in 1932.
82. Rosenblum notified the Chemical Society and the Institute of Chemistry of his change of residence, giving them his new ‘Hyde Park’ address (IC Register of Fellows, Associates and Students, 1899–1900, p.85). His notepaper interestingly carries a small Russian double-headed eagle with the motto ‘Mundo Nulla Fides’ (No Faith in the World), which is literally interpreted to mean ‘place not your faith in worldly things’. It is a clear invitation to place one’s faith not in the worldly but in the divine, and was the motto of the Reverend Hugh Thomas (source – Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, College of Arms, London).
83. See note 79.
84. Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.31.
85. According to Land Title NGL446317 at the Harrow District Land Registry, the property belonged to the Church Commissioners for England, who owned the entire Paddington Estate of which Upper Westbourne Terrace was a part. Hugh Thomas took over the tenancy from Reuben Greatorex in 1891. Ormonde Crosse, previously the tenant at nearby 32 Delamere Terrace, took over the tenancy from Sigmund and Margaret Rosenblum in June 1899. The estate was sold by the commissioners on 30 August 1954 to the London County Council, who demolished it and built a council estate development. The LCC renamed Upper Westbourne Terrace ‘Bourne Terrace’, the name it bears today.
86. Passport Names Index, issued to S.G. Reilly, 2 June 1899, PRO FO 611/19.
87. PRO FO 372/2756, Nos 7096/7531.
88. Sidney Reilly – The True Story, Michael Kettle, p.15.
89. Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, pp.32–36. The 1901 Census indicates that no one by the name of Margaret Reilly or Rosenblum, born on 1 January 1874, was residing in the UK at this time.
90. There is no record of Reilly ever having had any connection with the Admiralty or NID. Joseph Bell, an Admiralty clerk, was a witness at Rosenblum’s 1898 wedding. As best as can be established, he had no connection with the Naval Intelligence Department. Admiralty records indicate that Bell was a second class assistant at the Nautical Almanac Office.
91. See note 79.
92. The chronology of this claim is in error. Sidney and Margaret Rosenblum took steps in 1899 to change their name to Reilly by Deed Poll, through solicitors Michael Abrahams Sons & Co. However, their hasty departure from England in June 1899 meant that the application was never completed let alone presented to the High Court. When Sidney eventually changed his name legally, a decade later, his High Court application (PRO/J18/95) referred to this earlier, aborted application. Whilst Margaret used the name Reilly from 1899 until her death in 1933, she never changed her name legally from Rosenblum.
93. Letter dated 17 April 1899 (The Melville Papers; Box 35, Index Vc, Folder 3, Ochrana Archive, Hoover Institution, Stanford, California); Service File of Fedor Gredinger (Fond 1405, Inventory 544, File 3314, Russian State Historical Archive, St Petersburg).
94. See note 56 and Polysulphin Company, PIP/Keynsham, No 231, Somerset Record Office.
95. Sigmund Rosenblum’s name was placed on the Department of Police ‘Wanted List’, which was distributed to all police departments and border posts. (Circular No. 4900 – Rosenblum is No. 47 on the list; Fond 63, Inventory 23, File 11, sheets 190–93, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow).
THREE – GAMBIT
1. Untitled synopsis by Margaret Reilly (as submitted to Cassell & Co. Ltd and Capt. William Isaac of the War Office, November 1931, Reilly Papers CX2616; also PRO HD 3/117, item 10; Mr White in Petrovsk, 16 July 1900.
2. Untitled synopsis by Margaret Reilly (see note 1).
3. The Truth About Port Arthur, E.K. Nozhin, p.927 (St Petersburg, 1907). Nozhin was a correspondent for the Port Arthur newspaper Novy Krai, which maintained close relations with the Port Arthur authorities.
4. My Life At Russia’s Service – Memoirs of the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (reprint, St Petersburg, 1996), p.101.
5. The Truth About Port Arthur, E.K. Nozhin, p.933.
6. Trade in Port Arthur, a statistical report to Russia’s finance minister S.
Yu Witte, by Dmitry Matveyevich Pozdneyev (St Petersburg 1902); State Historical Archives of St Petersburg.
7. Ibid., Appendix 1, Report No. 97.
8. Ibid
9. Fond 104, op 1d 58, listy 122-124, d 60, list 17, Russian State Historical Archive, St Petersburg.
10. Fond 967, Inventory 2, File 153, sheets 77 and 83 reverse (Russian State Archive of the Navy, St Petersburg).
11. Document dated 11 January 1921, The Reilly Papers CX 2616; The Truth about Port Arthur, E.K. Nozhin, p.933.
12. US Immigration, Port of New York, Volume 6887, p.20, line 2 (16/9/21) refers to Margaret’s 1903 entry.
13. Secrets of Espionage: Tales of the Secret Service, Winfried Ludecke (J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1929), p.106; and History of the Japanese Secret Service, Richard Deacon (Frederick Muller, 1982), p.48/49.
14. Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.35.
15. Letter from Professor Ian Nish to the author, dated 11 April 2001.
16. US Bureau of Investigation report written by Agent L. Perkins, 3 April 1917.
17. Guy Gaunt was nominally head of British intelligence in New York. However, he came under the Naval Intelligence Division, not SIS.
18. The Yield of the Years, Guy Gaunt (London 1940), pp.109–16.
19. ‘Rakka ryusui’ is the 1906 report of Col. Akashi Motojiro dealing with his secret co-operation with revolutionary movements within the Russian Empire during the Russo-Japanese War. The 1988 translation by Inaba Chiharu also includes relevant Japanese General Staff telegrams from 1904/05. Among Akashi’s contacts were Felix Volkhovsky, who had succeeded Sergei Stepniak as the leading light in the ‘Russia Free Press Campaign’ in London.
20. History of the Japanese Secret Service, Richard Deacon, pp.49–50. The original copy of this letter, along with other Deacon source material pertaining to this book was destroyed. This was confirmed in a letter to the author by Deacon’s widow, Eileen McCormick, dated 10 November 2000.