by Andrew Cook
14. J.P. Morgan Jr, 1867–1943, John D. Forbes (University of Virginia Press, 1981), p.89.
15. Tacoma Daily News, 3 February 1915, p.1.
16. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’ by Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, pp.98–99.
17. James R. Mann was a member of the US House of Representatives who authored and sponsored ‘The Mann Act’ of 1910. This forbade, under heavy penalties, the transportation of women from one state to another for immoral purposes.
18. US Immigration, Port of New York, Volume 5510, 15 February 1915.
19. Portraits of Unusual People, Vladimir Krymov, p.72.
20. Certificate of Marriage of Sidney G. Reilly and Nadine Zalessky, 16 February 1915, Marriage Register No. 4404–15, Borough of Manhattan.
21. The Career of Sidney Reilly, 1895–1925: A Case Study in Circumstantial Evidence, G.L. Owen (unpublished manuscript).
22. US Immigration, Port of New York, Volume 5500, 3 April 1915.
23. New York Times, 26 April 1915, SS Kursk sailed at 12 p.m. on 27 April 1915.
24. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report of 10 September 1918 and Memorandum of 12 September 1918.
25. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report of 10 September 1918.
26. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, p.119, note 87.
27. Fond 1343, Inventory 8, File 269 (Russian State Military Historical Archive, Moscow).
28. Ibid.
29. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, copy of Report on ‘de Wyckoff’ dated January 1917 from French Deuxieme Bureau to ONI).
30. Fond 1343, Inventory 8, File 269, Russian State Military Historical Archive, Moscow.
31. US Immigration, Port of New York, Volume 5587, 10 July 1915.
32. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, pp.96–97.
33. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 31 August 1918.
34. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 12 September 1918.
35. Letter from Sidney Reilly to Gen. A.V. Germonius (Fond 6173, Inventory 1, File 25, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow).
36. Portraits of Unusual People, Vladimir Krymov, pp.72–73.
37. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report of 11 October 1918.
38. US Military Observer, Berlin to AC of S, G-2, US Army, Subject: Lurich, 3 November 1921 (UDS, File 800 11-381, Maj. W. Cowles to W. Hurley, Office of Under Secretary, Department of State, 10 December 1921).
39. Velvet and Vinegar, Norman G. Thwaites (Grayson and Grayson, 1932), pp.181–82.
40. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 23 August 1918.
41. Velvet and Vinegar, Norman G. Thwaites, p.181.
42. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 31 July 1916, p.1.
43. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, p.105ff.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Sabotage at Black Tom, Jules Witcover (Algonquin Chapel Hill, 1989), p.160.
47. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, pp.108–9. The theory that Jahnke was a double agent is dispelled in the US National Counterintelligence Center’s American Revolution to World War Two, Frank J. Rafalko (ed.), Chapter Three, p.11 and note 152. British sources also reject the view that Jahnke had any connection with SIS.
48. Ibid.
49. Spreading the Spy Net, Henry Landau (Jarrolds, 1935), p.270.
50. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, p.106.
51. Spreading the Spy Net, Henry Landau, p.272.
52. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Volume 10, No. 1, January 1995, p.111.
53. Ibid.
54. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Reports of 23 and 28 August, and 10 September 1918.
55. 9 March by the Gregorian calendar in use in the West. By the Julian still being used in Russia it was 24 February.
56. Britain’s Master Spy – The Adventures of Sidney Reilly, foreword, p xii.
57. Unpublished synopsis by Margaret Reilly (November 1931); Reilly also told a mercantile agency in New York that he had ‘served in the British Army in France during the period of the war’ (YN 1215, 24 July 1925, Reilly Papers CX 2616).
58. Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.19ff.
59. Ace of Spies (1992 edition), Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.60.
60. Report of Agent L.S. Perkins of US Bureau of Investigation, ‘Sidney G. Reilly – Neutrality Matter’, 3 April 1917.
SEVEN – CONFIDENCE MEN
1. See Chapter Eight, note 55.
2. US War Department, General Staff, Military Intelligence Division (MID) Box 2506, File 9140–6073, Ralph Van Deman to William Wiseman, 7 July 1917.
3. Ibid., William Wiseman to Ralph Van Deman, 9 July 1917.
4. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum from Chief Yeoman Bond to Lt Irving; ‘Names in the Weinstein Case’.
5. Ibid.
6. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandums of 6 and 12 September 1918.
7. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 23 August 1918.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. See note 4.
12. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 21 August 1918.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 10 September 1918.
16. Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Reports of 6 June and 17 October 1918.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Memorandum of 10 September 1918.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. American Revolution to World War II, Frank J. Rafalko (ed.), Chapter Three, note 114 (US National Counterintelligence Center).
24. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, ‘Reilly, Weinstein, Jachalsky Case: Synopsis of (copy of card file) of Persons Involved’, 4 September 1918.
25. Ibid.
26. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Reports of 10 and 12 September 1918. (In the spring of 1916 Nadine returned to Russia on word that her father had been taken ill. It would seem that Reilly’s relationship with Tremaine began during her absence. According to US Immigration Records, Nadine returned to New York on 18 June 1916. Her father eventually died on 20 July 1917 – Service Record of Petr Massino, Fond 400, Inventory 17, File 13135; Inventory 12, File 28672, Russian State Military Historical Archives, Moscow).
27. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Reports of 21 August, 6 and 10 September 1918.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report of 17 October 1918.
39. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report of 10 September 1918.
40. Ibid.
41. Trust No One, Richard Spence, (Feral House, 2002), p25.
42. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report of 10 September 1918.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Steaming Up!, Samuel M. Vauclain with Earl Chapin May (Brewer and Warren, 1930), p.248.
47. Foreign Office Passport Names Index (FO) 611/24, Mrs Margaret Reilly, Passport No. 69238, issued 4 January 1916.
48. According to Leon C. Messenger (The Nanny with the Glass Eye, p.25), ‘Mother explained that Daisy (
Margaret) had had many years experience as a governess’. We do not know when she first undertook such a post, but it is unlikely to have been before the war. The first recorded post as a governess is in 1922 for the Wary family in Belgium (ibid., pp.25–26), although it is unlikely that this was the first such post. Working for an English family in St Petersburg would be have been a natural move in the circumstances.
49. Department of State, Office of the Counselor, Subject: Norbert Mortimer Rodkinson’, 26 November 1918 (National Archives, Washington DC).
50. Entry 486, Register of Births in the Sub-district of Brixton in the Registration District of Lambeth in the County of Surrey, Corinne Elise Augusta Polens, 6 January 1881. Corinne was the daughter of Otto Polens, a German merchant and Corinne Knaggs, a London music hall performer. Her ‘doubtful morals’ no doubt refers to her alleged association with prostitution.
51. French term for prostitute.
52. US Bureau of Investigation, Memorandum by Agent R.W. Finch (New York City), 2 August 1918, re.: ‘One Rodkinson, aspirant for position on Russian Commission’.
53. 14th Census of the United States: 8 January 1920 (Manhattan, Enumeration District No. 566, Sheet 8A).
54. ONI, letter from Rear-Admiral Roger Welles (director of Naval Intelligence) to A. Bruce Bielaski (chief, US Bureau of Investigation), January 1919 (National Archives, Washington DC).
EIGHT – CODE NAME ST1,
1. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, report dated 17 October 1918, p.2; from Chief Yeoman Bond to Hollis Hunnewell.
2. Ibid.
3. Velvet and Vinegar, by Norman G. Thwaites, p.181.
4. Ibid.
5. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, memorandum to Lt Irvine, dated 23 August 1918.
6. Diary of Mansfield Cumming, March 1918 (quotations from the diary are taken from The Quest for C by Alan Judd); Army List and Indian Army List (PRO) indicates that John Dymoke Scale (born 27 December 1882) was an Indian Army career officer who had first been sent to Russia in December 1912. In June 1913 he qualified as a Russian interpreter first class before rejoining the 87th Punjabis in July 1914. At the outbreak of war he was transferred to France where he distinguished himself in the trenches, was promoted to major in May 1916 and awarded the DSO in April 1917. That same month he was sent back to Russia and attached to the SIS station in Petrograd, which is also corroborated by History of the British Intelligence Organisation, M.K. Burge, p.7, Intelligence Corps Museum, Chicksands, Bedfordshire.
7. Diary of Mansfield Cumming, 17 March 1918.
8. Velvet and Vinegar, Norman G. Thwaites, p.181.
9. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 1995), p.111.
10. RAF Service Record of 2nd Lt Sidney G. Reilly (PRO Pi21220).
11. Velvet and Vinegar, Norman G. Thwaites, p.183.
12. ‘Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917’, Richard Spence, Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 1995), p.112.
13. Diary of Air Mechanic R.H. Ibbertson, ref DB340, RAF Museum, Hendon.
14. In 1919 Beatrice Tremaine met Douglas Rollins, son of former New Hampshire Governor Frank West Rollins, in Florida. They married in 1921 and lived in Europe until his death on 9 June 1932. On her death in 1986, her estate, including her letters and papers passed to her sons Douglas Jr and Gordon Rollins.
15. RAF Service Record of 2nd Lt Sidney G. Reilly (PRO Pi21220).
16. The Bolsheviks’ seizure of power on 25 October 1917 (Julian calendar) is here and henceforth referred to as 7 November 1917 (Gregorian calendar).
17. Reilly refers to the School of Military Aeronautics in a document dated 12 October 1921 concerning his claim for arrears of pay and gratuity (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
18. Counter-intelligence surveillance report on Sidney G. Reilly, 28 November 1911, Fond 2000, Inventory 15, File 177, Russian State Military Historical Archives, Moscow.
19. Alphabetical Directory of Inhabitants of the City of St Petersburg, State Public Library, St Petersburg, TsSB, S591 Len V-38.
20. Canadian Department of National Defense, Directorate of Military History, Special card index, ‘2nd Lt Sidney G. Reilly MC’.
21. Report dated 9 March 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103). The Hotel Cecil next door to the Savoy had unfortunately been commandeered by the War Office for additional office space.
22. Passport of John Dymoke Scale No 173914 (The Papers of John Dymoke Scale)
23. Letter from Sidney Reilly to Col. Byron, War Office, dated 19 January 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
24. Ibid. (attached to letter).
25. Ibid. (attached to letter).
26. Memorandum from SIS to MI5, dated 30 January 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
27. Memorandum from MI5 to SIS, dated 2 February 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
28. Entry No. 475, Register of Deaths in the Registration District of Wandsworth, in the Sub-district of South West Battersea, 1 February 1918.
29. Telegram No. 206 of 28 February 1918, from C to SIS New York.
30. Telegram CX 021744, CMX 188, received London 10.00 a.m. 4 March 1918 (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
31. Observation reports dated 6–9 March 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
32. Report dated 9 March 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
33. Telegram CX 023100, CMX 201, received London 2.20 p.m. 14 March 1918 (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
34. 2 Whitehall Court (today part of the Royal Horseguards Hotel) was designed by the architects Archer and Green and built in 1884. Conveniently situated opposite the War Office, it was, to all intents and purposes, a faceless apartment block. C had commandeered the top floor and rented it under the name of Capt. Spencer (Kelly’s Post Office Directory 1918).
35. Red Dusk and the Morrow, Sir Paul Dukes (Williams and Norgate, 1923), p.9. In Ace of Spies, p.98, Robin Bruce Lockhart states that ‘when Dukes was summoned for his first interview with the Secret Service chief, Reilly was present at the meeting and endorsed Cumming’s selection’. However, it is clear from Dukes’ own account that the interview took place in July 1918 when Reilly was in Russia (The Story of ST25, Sir Paul Dukes, Cassell, 1938, pp.28–29.
36. Diary of Mansfield Cumming – 15 March 1918.
37. Telegram CX 023996, CXM 212, received London 2.25 p.m. 21 March 1918 (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
38. Diary of Mansfield Cumming – 22 March 1918.
39. Memorandum from MI5 to Irish Command, dated 22 March 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
40. Memorandum from Irish Command to MI5, dated 31 March 1918 (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103).
41. The prefix ST refers to the SIS station through which Reilly was reporting – Stockholm.
NINE – THE REILLY PLOT
1. Telegram CXM 159, dated 29 March 1918 (Reilly Papers CX 2616).
2. Letter from Stephen Alley to Robin Bruce Lockhart, dated 13 May 1966, Box 6, Robert Bruce Lockhart Collection, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California.
3. Telegram dated 22 March 1918, 5.25 p.m. (Sidney Reilly’s MI5 File PF 864103/V1).
4. The fact that C also refers to Reilly as ‘Reilli’ in his telegram CXM 159 of 29 March 1918 strongly suggests that this misspelling is intentional.
5. Ibid., note 34.
6. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, Report dated 16 September 1918, p.1, from Chief Yeoman Bond to H. Hunnewell and A. Smith.
7. Gen. Edward Spears recalled Reilly telling him of ‘a valuable collection of coins and Napoleonic relics’ he wanted to retrieve. It is also apparent from Spears’ letter that some or all of this collection was still in Russia in 1925 (letter to Robin Bruce Lockhart dated 2 January 1967, Box 6, Robert Bruce Lockhart Collection, Hoover Institution Archive, Stanford, California.
8. Telegram CX 027753, dated 16 April 1918 (Reilly papers CX 2616).
9. Ibid.
10. Memoirs
of a British Agent, Robert Bruce Lockhart (p.276).
11. Ibid.
12. The following month Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour cabled Lockhart castigating his judgement and advice: ‘You have at different times advised against Allied intervention in any form; against it by the Japanese alone; against it with Japanese assistance; against it at Vladivostock; in favour of it at Murmansk; in favour of it with an invitation; in favour of it without an invitation since it was really desired by the Bolsheviks; in favour of it without invitation whether the Bolsheviks desired it or not’. ‘Lockhart Plot or Dzerzhinskii Plot?’, R.K. Debo, pp.426–427.
13. Sidney Reilly – The True Story, Michael Kettle, p.24; Ace of Spies, Robin Bruce Lockhart, pp.67–68; Master Spy, Edward Van Der Rhoer, pp.24–25.
14. Telegram CX 013592, sent from Moscow on 12 May 1918 (PRO WO 32/5669).
15. Telegram CX 035402, sent from Moscow on 29 May 1918 (PRO WO 32/5669).
16. Ibid.
17. Telegram CX 035176, sent from Moscow, 3 June 1918 (PRO WO 32/5669).
18. Dagmara Genrikhovna Karozus was not, as suggested by previous writers, a Russian. She was in fact German, and as such had been on Department of Police files since 1914 (Fond 102, 6 deloproizvodstvo, opis 174, delo 69, tom 30, listy 37-40, 1914, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow).
19. Personal file of Elizaveta Emilyevna Otten, Inventory 6, edinitsa khranenija 120, Obraztsov State Academic Theatre, Moscow.
20. Account of the trial proceedings of the Supreme Tribunal, Moscow, of 29 November 1918, as reported in Izvestia, 1 December 1918.
21. Vladimir Grigoryevich Orlov (1882-1941), a former counter-intelligence officer in the First World War, who served in the Criminal Department of the Cheka in Petrograd. To conceal his real identity he adopted the name Boleslav Orlinsky. In September 1918 he fled to Finland and later served on Denikin’s counter-intelligence staff in the Civil War. In 1920 he settled in Germany where he continued his fight against the Bolsheviks by publishing compromising material about them in the western press. He was thought to be the prime suspect in connection with the forged Zinoviev letter, although nothing was ever proven. He was shot by the Gestapo in 1941 for anti-Nazi activity.
22. Master Spy, Edward Van Der Rhoer, p.224ff; History of the Russian Secret Service, Richard Deacon, p.264ff; Reilly – The First Man, Robin Bruce Lockhart, p.55; ‘The Terrorist and the Master Spy: The Political Partnership of Boris Savinkov and Sidney Reilly, 1918–25’, Richard Spence, Revolutionary Russia, Vol. 4, No. 1, June 1991, p.120ff.
