Sidney Reilly

Through his ‘Ozone Preparations Company’ he met Reverend Hugh Thomas, who was suffering from kidney inflammation. Rev. Thomas became fascinated by miraculous treatment peddled by Rosenblum. Soon he got involved in a affair with Rev. Thomas’ young wife Margaret Thomas.

On March 12, 1898, Rev. Thomas died in a hotel bed in a mysterious condition, a few days after making a new will where he made his wife the executor. A suspicious Dr. T. W. Andrew, no record of whom was found and who resembled Rosenblum to a great extent, certified Rev. Thomas’ death.

On August 22, 1898 he married Margaret and with that his desire of becoming wealthy was fulfilled.

There are several versions regarding his origin and identity that has confused intelligence agencies and researchers for over a millennium. Several claims of his own include his father as an Irish clergyman, an Irish Merchant seaman and an elegant landowner among others.

Segodnya, an Ukranian newspaper states that he was born in Odessa on March 24, 1874 as Zigmund Markovich Rozenblum in the family of a shipping agent and stockbroker called Mark.

A book by Andrew Cook, ‘Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly’ states he was born as Salomon (Shlomo) Rosenblum on March 24, 1873, being illegitimate son of Dr Mikhail Abramovich Rosenblum and Polina, while his assumed father was Grigory (Hersh) Rosenblum.

During 1890 to 1893 he stayed in Vienna and studied chemistry. He mentioned that he was confined by the ‘Imperial Russian Secret Police’ in 1892 because he served as courier of ‘Friends of Enlightenment’, a revolutionary group and was later released.

Faking his own death in Odessa he escaped in a British ship and reached Brazil where he adopted the name Pedro and became familiar with British officers.

In 1899 he rechristened himself as Sidney George Reilly, probably to return to Czarist Russia.

Using his forged British passport, Reilly travelled to Czarist Russia along with his wife Margaret in June 1899. While Margaret stayed in St. Petersburg, he went to Caucasus to inspect oil deposits there and thereafter sent his report to the British Government for a payment.

After a stint in Port Said, Egypt, the couple travelled Far East in 1901.

He then moved to Port Arthur, Manchuria, ahead of the Russo-Japanese War. There he served both British and Japanese as a double agent. While Port Arthur was under the threat of a Japanese invasion, Reilly and his business partner Moisei (Moses) Akimovich Ginsburg made profits in war situation by purchasing necessities and other goods and selling them at high rates.

In January 1904, Reilly and Ho Liangshung, a Chinese engineer plundered the defense plans of Port Arthur and gave them to the Japanese Navy who eventually made a sudden attack at the place on the night of 8/9 February. Despite thousands of casualties from both sides, the Russians succeeded in weakening the Japanese war efforts.

In 1909 disguised as Karl Hahn, a Baltic shipyard worker, he was successful in stealing the weapon plans of the Germans and after cutting it in four pieces, sent them separately to the British intelligence.

In an endeavour to dethrone the Bolshevik regime and assassinate Vladimir Lenin, the British intelligence trained him after which he went to Moscow in May 1918. He along with Lockhart met Boris Savinkov and other anti-Bolshevik groups, funded them and planned a coup against the regime. However their operations were thwarted and he was forced to flee Russia.