![]() Monogamy did not come naturally to Reilly and although he was usually fastidious in his choice of women, it did not prevent him from cavorting around London on one of his visits with a common tart named Plugger. ![]() A string of mistresses would fall under his spell. Giles Milton, the author of Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot (2013) has pointed out: "All accounts agree that he had a seductive charm, loving women as he loved himself. Reilly developed a reputation for womanising. ![]() Deacon adds that: "He was certainly being well-paid as in 1906 he had a lavish apartment in St Petersburg, a splendid art collection and was a member of the most exclusive club in the city." Sidney Reilly as a young man It is believed that as well as working for the British he was also spying for the Tsarist regime. The author, Richard Deacon, has argued that he was working as a "double-agent serving both the British and the Japanese." In 1906 he moved to St Petersburg, where he became friendly with members of the revolutionary underground. Ginsburg & Company in Port Arthur, China. In 1904 he began working for the trading firm M. With his strong Jewish features and accented English, Reilly was an unconvincing Englishman, but this became his favourite of many alternative identities." According to Brian Marriner Reilly "possessed passports in eleven different names."Īlthough based in London, Reilly spent most of his time in the Far East. A patron, possibly his entrée into British intelligence, was Sir Henry Hozier (1838–1907), powerful secretary of Lloyds connected to the War Office intelligence branch. Spence, the author of Trust No One: The Secret World of Sidney Reilly (2003) points out: "In 1899 he became Sidney George Reilly by receiving a passport in that name, though he never legally adopted it or became a British subject. Three years later he married Margaret Callahan Thomas (1874–1933), a governess and the widow of the Revd Hugh Thomas. He was also said to have worked as a spy for the Japanese government and there are many unverified stories of his early forays into espionage." He would later spin tales about how he had been a cook, a dockworker, a railway engineer in India and a brothel doorman in Brazil, but there is no certainty that he did any of these jobs. No less obscure are the next two decades of his life. Rosenblum fled Odessa in his late teens for reasons that remain obscure. Giles Milton, who has researched his early life claims: "Both his parents were Jewish, although they had converted to Catholicism. He had an exceptional command of languages, including English, Russian, Polish, German, and French." Nevertheless he demonstrated sufficient knowledge of chemistry to gain membership in the Chemical Society in 1896 and the Institute of Chemistry in 1897. ![]() "Despite later claims, he did not attend Heidelberg or Cambridge universities or the Royal School of Mines. Spence, details of his education are uncertain. He was also active in the Jewish emancipation movement.Īccording to his biographer, Richard B. His father was a contractor and a landowner. Georgi Rosenblum, the only son of Hersh Yakov Rozenblium and his wife, Paulina Bramson, was born in Piotrków on 24th March 1874.
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