Ace of Spies (41 page)

16. When he married Pepita Haddon Chambers on 23 May 1923 (Entry 29, 1923 Register of Marriages in the District of St Martin, in the County of London) he indicated his year of birth as 1874, as he did when he entered the United States in 1924 (US Immigration, Port of New York, Volume 7978, p.26, 15 May 1924, and US Immigration, Port of New York, Volume 8155, p.5, 21 October 1924).

17. 
History of the British Secret Service
, Richard Deacon, p.140, and
Sidney Reilly – The True Story,
Michael Kettle, p.13.

18. The only member of his family that he endeavoured to keep in touch with was his first cousin Felicia Rosenblum who lived in Warsaw. According to an ‘Explanatory note' appended to Reilly's OGPU File No. 249856, written on 10 November 1925 by V.A. Styrne (now part of Trust File 302330, Vol. 37, Central Archives of the Federal Security Service, Moscow), ‘He was extremely bothered by being a Jew and made every attempt to conceal his origin'.

19. Although marketed as being written by Sidney Reilly and his wife, the book
Britain's Master Spy – The Adventures of Sidney Reilly
is not an autobiography. It was ghostwritten by journalist Stuart Atherley six years after Reilly's death on the instructions of Pepita Reilly.

20. Reports commissioned by the author dated 11 August 2000 and 12 October 2000 by Stepan Zhelyaskov, Vital Records Specialist at the State Archives of Odessa Region.

21. Report commissioned by the author dated 11 August 2000 by Gerda Rattay of Vienna City Archive (ref MA 8-A-1285/2000).

22. Reports commissioned by the author dated 4 September 2000 by Dr Juliane Mikoletzky of the Technical University of Vienna Archives and 3 September 2000 by Thomas Maisel of the University of Vienna Archives.

23. According to War Office records (The Army List), at the Public Record Office, only one Maj. Fothergill is to be found during the time period in question. Maj. Charles Fothergill was commissioned in 1855, retired in 1881 and went into business. He was never involved in any South American expeditions nor had he any intelligence connections. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility, however, that Charles Fothergill was known to Sidney Reilly, who was acquainted with his son Basil Fothergill.

24. It is likely that Abram was born before the 1821 Russian decree which required Jews in the Kingdom of Poland to take surnames. Furthermore, it was not until 1826 that separate civil registers were begun for recording births, deaths and marriages for each religious community (Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and Russian Orthodox). It is not therefore possible to verify Abram's specific date of birth.

25. Gentile names are shown in brackets following the first mention of a Hebrew name. All future references use the goyish or gentile name used by that individual (goy is Hebrew for gentile).

26. Marriage Records 1840, town of Szczuczyn, province of Bialystok, Lomza Gubernia, Fond 264, Bialystok Archive, Poland, Jankiel Leyba Rosenblum and Hana Bramson.

27. There is no ‘H' in the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Hebrew name Hersh therefore appears as Gersh when written in Russian.

28. University of Leeds Russian Archive, MS 1080/859, Family Tree of the Rosenblum, Neufeldt and Wolff families; MS 1080/322, letter from Vera Bramson to Sophia Wolff, 24 April 1928; Letter from Esfir Bramson to the author, 3 March 2003

29. Service File of Mikhail Abramovich Rosenblum; Fond 316, Inventory 64, Case 448, Russian State Military Historical Archives, Moscow.

30. Mikhail Rosenblum married Sophie Zonshein on 24 September 1889; Fond 39, Inventory 5, Case 46, p.106, State Archives of Odessa Region. Their son Boris was born in Odessa on 6 July 1890; Fond 39, Inventory 5, File 52, p.185, State Archives of Odessa Region.

31. A variety of versions of Rosenblum family photographs (p.26) have surfaced over the past four decades, including the one of a teenage Reilly (p.29). They were taken seperately on various occasions during the 1880s, and not taken contemporaneously in 1890 as implied by Michael Kettle (
Sidney Reilly – The True Story,
p.72).

32. To date no trace of a record of birth for Rosenblum has ever been found in any of the locations put forward as his place of birth within the former Russian Empire: Bedzin, Poland; Bielsk, Poland; Odessa, Ukraine; Kherson, Ukraine; St Petersburg, Russia. Ukrainian records in particular are incomplete due to the ravages of the Second World War.

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 address 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.