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.