Andrew Cook - Ace of Spies

4. Diary of Edward Spears, 17 July 1921 (Spears MSS SPRS 2/4 Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge).

5. Herbert Guedalla, a pre-war director of the Russo-English Bank. As a director of the Imperial and Foreign Company, along with Edward Spears, he was also involved in Reilly/Spears Czech Radium deal.

6. Lt-Col. Robert Guy (1878–1927), a war-time acquaintance of Spears (see Who Was Who, 1916–1928 )

7. Reilly had recently moved from 11 Park Place, St James’s, to Flat D3, the Albany, Piccadilly, an exclusive London address popular with peers, members of the government and upper-class society generally.

8. Reilly always liked to make out that he was a close confidant of Churchill’s. While close to Sir Archibald Sinclair, it is most unlikely that Reilly was ever more than the briefest of acquaintances with Churchill. In Churchill’s entire correspondence for the years 1919–25 there are but two letters written to Reilly, both in response to letters from Reilly. Both address him very formally as Mr Reilly. Anyone who was close or on personal terms with Churchill would have been addressed as ‘My dear Sinclair’ or ‘Dear Spears’, not as ‘Dear Mr’.

9. Diary of Edward Spears, 17 August 1921 (Spears MSS SPRS 2/4 Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge).

10. Ibid., 21–25 October 1921.

11. Ibid., 25 October 1921.

12. Ibid., 23 November 1921.

13. Diary of Edward Spears, 20 April 1922 (Spears MSS SPRS 2/5 Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge).

14. Ibid., 30 June 1922.

15. The Tatler, No. 905, 30 October 1918, p.133.

16. Letter from Sidney Reilly to Boris Savinkov, dated 7 May 1923, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow (Fond R-5831, Inventory 1, File 177).

17. Entry 462, Register of Births in the Registration District of Lancaster in the County of Lancaster, 4 May 1862. Isobel Burton died at the age of eighty-six (Entry 463, Register of Deaths in the Sub-district of Hythe in the Registration District of Folkestone in the County of Kent, 20 June 1948).

18. Letter to British Consulate, Hamburg, from Isabel Burton, 5 June 1888 (A6 Vol 33, Alphabetisches Register weiblicher Fremder 1868–1890).

19. Franz Kurt Burton, born 5 July 1888, Hamburg, Germany (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Standesamt).

20. Nelly Louise Burton, born 20 January 1891, Hamburg, Germany (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Standesamt).

21. ‘Card File of inhabitants who left or died between 1892 and 1925’ (K44320, Fotoarchiv, Hamburg).

22. No record of Alice Burton’s birth has been found in Britain. She may have been born on the continent or registered in Britain under a name other than Burton. On her Marriage Certificate (Entry 124, Register of Marriages in the Registration District of St George Hanover Square in the County of London, 18 January 1918) column 7 – ‘Father’s name and Surname’ has been left blank. Unusually, column 6 of her Death Certificate – ‘Date and place of birth’ (Entry 87, Register of Deaths in the Registration District of Westminster in the City of Westminster, 5 February 1972) simply states ‘about 1894’

23. Programme of show ‘Cache ton nu’, 20 April 1914 (Ro 15743, Arsenal Library, Paris).

24. ‘Pepa’ is a shortened version of Josephina and ‘ita’ is a diminutive form, so Pepita literally means ‘small Josephina’. Bobadilla is a town in the province of Jaen in the south of Spain and derives from the Arabic Boab’dil. Nelly first adopted the stage name Bobadilla in the summer of 1914. In 1916 her mother Isobel was interviewed by MI5, who were interested in her liaison with a Dutch merchant seaman. In a statement she explained that Pete Reyers was her intended second husband and that her first husband’s name was Bobadilla. She never married Reyers and in fact never married anyone any time during her life. When she died in 1948 her death certificate claimed she was the widow of ‘Frank Burton’.

25. The Sketch, 29 November 1916, p.6.

26. US Bureau of Investigation/ONI, memorandum to H. Hunnewell and A. Smith, 6 September 1918.

27. 1924 Electoral Register, City of Westminster, Knightsbridge St George’s Ward.

28. Entry 96, Register of Marriages in the Regis-tration District of St George Hanover Square in the County of London, 29 October 1920.

29. This story is contained in a letter from Dame Rebecca West to Robin Bruce Lockhart, 29 February 1968 (Robert Bruce Lockhart Collection, Box 6, Hoover Institution Archive, Stanford, California).

30. The London Directory 1921.

31. Entry 95, Register of Deaths in the Sub-district of Mayfair and Knightsbridge in the Registration District of St George Hanover Square in the County of London, 28 March 1921; Charles Haddon Chambers died intestate. On 2 May 1921 the High Court of Justice (Principal Probate Registry) granted his full estate to Nelly (£9,195 gross, £8,240 net).

32. Britain’s Master Spy – The Adventures of Sidney Reilly, Sidney and Pepita Reilly, p.105.

33. Ibid., pp.108–09.

34. Caryll Houselander: That Divine Eccentric, Maise Ward, p.75–76.

35. Nelly’s claim to have been staying at the Hotel Adlon in December 1922/January 1923 is called into question by this letter. The Hotel Adlon was situated at Unter den Linden 77, Berlin (it was destroyed in the Battle of Berlin in 1945, but rebuilt on the same site in 1997). Reilly’s letter of 9 January is addressed to her at Bamberger Strasse 38, IV Stock (4th floor), Berlin Wilmersdorf – not at the Adlon.

36. Cita is a reference to her sister Alice Menzies, who often referred to herself as Cita Bobadilla. She also aspired to a career on the stage, but was unsuccessful. During Nelly’s marriage to Haddon Chambers she was apparently kept short of funds and was therefore dependent upon her sister Alice for support.

37. Letter from Sidney Reilly to Nelly Haddon Chambers, 9 January 1923 (Robert Bruce Lockhart Collection, Box 6, Hoover Institution Archive, Stanford, California).

38. Entry 29, Register of Marriages in the Registration District of St Martin in the County of London, 18 May 1923.

39. Britain’s Master Spy – The Adventures of Sidney Reilly, p.111.

40. Ibid., p.115.

41. Ibid.

42. Margaret referred to their last meeting in her interview with HM Vice Consul Darrell Wilson in Brussels, Despatch No. 156, 29 May 1931 (PRO FO 372/2756) and in her untitled synopsis of November 1931.

43. In September 1921 Margaret journeyed to America (US Immigration Records, Port of New York, Vol. 6887, p.20, 16 September 1921). She was hardly in a position to fund her own passage, thus raising the question of who financed her trip and why. According to US Immigration Records, she stated that she was visiting the US in order to visit her friends ‘Edward Moon and wife’. From the time Reilly initially filed a claim against the Baldwin Locomotive Company in 1920, their lawyers White and Case began assembling evidence on Reilly and his reputation. Private investigators were hired, including one Edward Moon.

44. Incorporation, Registration and Statement in Lieu of Prospectus documents in the file of the Modern Medicine Company Ltd, Registration No. 189767 (PRO BT 31/27894).

45. Ibid. Two further directors, Frederick Martin and Kenneth Fraser, joined the board in July and September 1923 respectively.

46. For documentation regarding Humagsolen, see PRO FD 1/953 and FD 1/3354.

47. Telegram from G7 London to SIS New York, 24 July 1923 ( Reilly Papers CX 2616).

48. Letter from William Field Robinson to George Hill, 9 September 1935 (Robert Bruce Lockhart Collection, Box 6, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California).

49. Ibid.

50. Letter from Edward Spears to Sidney Reilly, 19 July 1923 (SPRS 1/301 Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge).