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Sidney Reilly has the strongest claim on the title of the “real James Bond”. For decades historians have tried to unpick the knotty threads of his life but much of it remains tangled in legend and mystery. Born in 1873 in Russia with the name Rosenblum, Reilly found himself in London having: a) stowed away on a British ship bound for Brazil after faking his own death when the Russians fingered him as a revolutionary, later winning a British passport after saving the life of a visiting intelligence officer during an attack by natives; or, b) fled a suburb of Paris where he and an accomplice called Voitek acquired large amounts of cash from two Italian anarchists later found stabbed to death.
In London, where he ran with the first story, Reilly quickly ingratiated himself into high society, satisfying his weakness for casinos, women and fast living. With a new identity and passport, the debonair playboy returned to Russia, where he spied for Britain and Japan.
In 1909, Reilly learned to weld and, disguised as a Baltic shipyard worker, found employment at a German weapons plant. He strangled a foreman who caught him stealing weapons plans before feeling the country with the designs. In the same year, according to one biography, Reilly posed as a pilot at the Frankfurt Airshow and removed a sophisticated magneto (generator) from a German plane. With an accomplice, he made detailed drawings of the device before replacing it.
Reilly’s biggest triumph came in 1918 when he plotted to depose the Bolshevik Government and assassinate Lenin. When men loyal to the communist leader infiltrated the scheme, Reilly fled back to Britain via Finland and Sweden and was sentenced to death in absentia.
In 1925, he was lured into a bogus anti-communist group run by Russian agents. One later said of Reilly: “His dark eyes expressed something biting and cruel; his lower lip drooped deeply and was too slick – the neat black hair, the demonstratively elegant suit ? Everything in his manner expressed something haughtily indifferent to his surroundings.” Reilly, known as the “Ace of Spies”, was shot and killed, leaving behind a string of wives who unsuccessfully pursued MI6 for compensation. They included an actress by the name of Pepita Bobadilla.
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