Ace of Spies (30 page)

In a revealing letter to an SIS colleague dated 23 January 1922, Reilly ends by saying, ‘I am not calling at the office; as Morton may perhaps have told you, just now it is healthier for me to keep out of the way for a while’.
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C’s position is made even clearer by a cable from SIS headquarters in London to the Vienna station, dated 1 February 1922, who were clearly seeking clarification about Reilly’s status:

In reply to your letter about Reilly, I wired you yesterday to say that you should give him no more information than was absolutely necessary.

To be quite frank I rather share your views and am of the opinion that he knows far too much about our organisation. Owing to his unofficial connection with us he knows such a lot that it would hardly do to quarrel with him, or, in fact, to let him see that he is receiving different treatment to that which he has become accustomed.

He worked for this office during the war in Russia and he then undoubtedly rendered us considerable service. Since the Armistice he has kept in touch with us and I think that, on the whole, we have received a great deal more information from him than he has obtained from us, although we have been able in many cases to give him facilities which he would otherwise not have enjoyed.

You no doubt know that he is Boris Savinkov’s right-hand man, and it is probably Reilly who is financing the whole movement and he can therefore be looked upon as being of some considerable importance.

He is exceedingly clever, certainly not anti-British and is genuinely working against the Bolsheviks as much as he is able.

I think the above will give you the cue as to how to deal with him; you should certainly not appear to be hiding anything from him or show a want of frankness, but at the same time be careful not to tell him anything of real importance.

It just strikes me that he may ask you to give facilities for two individuals, with whom he is in touch and who are two of Savinkov’s principal assistants, to proceed to Constantinople. Naturally any such
request must be forwarded to the competent authorities, as the last thing in the world we should wish is to become embroiled in any way with Savinkov, although of course we are not adverse to hearing all about the gentleman and his plans.
Yours sincerely
BM
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If Reilly’s position was in any doubt, an SIS cable to the New York Passport Control Officer the following July was even more succinct:

S.G. Reilly worked for us during and after the war in Russia, and knows a certain amount about our organisation as it was then constituted. He is apparently familiar with your name as he asked for a letter of introduction to you personally, in case he had difficulty with his passports. We avoided giving him any letter, as although he probably thinks Passport Control is cover for this department, it is just as well that he should not be certain. In fact, if he puts any questions, it will be as well for you to say that your work is entirely Passport Control and that you know nothing of any other work as the organisation is now completely altered. As Reilly travels on a British passport, there is no reason why he should worry you at all, but in case he rolls up this is just to warn you that he has now nothing to do with us.
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Reilly’s departure from SIS was not, of course, an isolated one. SIS were at this time shedding a good number of operatives who had initially been recruited during the war. George Hill and William Field Robinson also left SIS in 1922. With the onset of peace, rapprochement with Russia, and government budget cuts, the service could no longer maintain its establishment at previous levels. Reilly apparently took the decision to dispense with his services rather badly and appealed to C to reconsider.

The appeals evidently fell on deaf ears. For Reilly there were to be no more second chances – the final curtain had indeed fallen on his brief but highly eventful SIS career.

Reilly’s relationship with SIS was not the only one that hit the rocks in 1922. In the early months of the previous year he had struck up a business association with Brig. Sir Edward Spears, who had left the army the previous year. Whilst Spears had good connections that he had built up in the army, he lacked, by his own admission, business experience.
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He proposed to make good this deficiency by taking on Reilly as a partner in the tobacco business they set up in the Czech capital Prague. Their biggest venture was, however, an attempt to commercially market Czech radium, to which end they founded the Radium Corporation Ltd.

Spears’ first impression of Reilly was ‘rather seedy but really quite nice’.
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Throughout their tempestuous business relationship Spears, like Lockhart and C before him, seems caught between these two opposing sides of Reilly’s character. Often frustrated, and at times angered by his methods, he can never bring himself to dislike Reilly on a personal level.

In July 1921 Reilly met Lockhart again while on a business trip to Prague with Spears. Lockhart, who was now commercial secretary at the British Legation in Prague, was involved in ‘smoothing the way for the revival of Central European banks’.
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Spears and Reilly lunched with Lockhart, and discussed with
him the situation concerning commercial opportunities and the banking negotiations that he was involved in. Reilly was, as usual, mixing business with pleasure, and seems to have taken Spears on a hectic round of socialising during their stay. The same day as their lunch with Lockhart, Spears recorded in his diary:

…with Reilly to a Russian Charity Fête – very popular and hot – did not like it. R[eilly] made great friends with some Russian singers. Poor people they are having a bad time. Lost children… one of them, a colonel in Russian army former ADC to an Archduke and a friend of Polovtsoffs. R[eilly] dragged me to dine at the place they play at. They sang gipsy songs to us… overcome by R[eilly]’s generosity.
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By the following month, Reilly’s unreliability was becoming apparent to Spears; who wrote:

Reilly was to have seen Guedalla
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at 3 did not turn up, absorbed in Russian business, I rather annoyed… Guedalla and Guy
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gave me the impression they are not at all keen on Reilly – saw R[eilly] at the Albany
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– he delighted as he saw Churchill who wants him to see L[loyd]G[eorge].
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The atmosphere was hardly improved when Spears received what he considered to be a ‘rude’ telegram from Reilly two weeks later. ‘I won’t stand cheek’,
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Spears recorded in his diary that day. Within months, however, their relationship had taken an even greater turn for the worse. What had started out as misgivings about reliability and protocol now focused on Reilly’s honesty in his dealings with the company. Suspicions had apparently been raised as to the amount of money Reilly was taking from company funds and receiving in expenses.
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Matters came to a head on the morning of 25 October when Spears arrived at the office and was outraged to find that the phone had been cut off ‘owing to Reilly not having paid’.
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After a row over an inflated expenses claim, Reilly appears to have placated Spears with yet another of his ‘get-rich-quick’
schemes, for as Spears’ diary records, on 22 November he and Reilly proceeded to the British and North European Bank ‘to see Rheiar re a Bulgarian egg scheme’. The following week Spears was again lecturing Reilly:

…on the danger of dealing with shady people and mixing politics with business – for R[eilly] has I fear compromised his position in Prague by identifying himself too much with Savinkov who is now out of favour there. R[eilly]’s great danger is his associates before he worked with us, he is not careful enough.
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If 1921 had seen its ups and downs so far as the Spears/Reilly relationship was concerned, then 1922 was downhill all the way. On 20 April another Reilly ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme hit the dust. Held out as another sure-fire winner, the ‘big Moravian scheme’, in Spears’ own words, ‘went fut’.
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Following another row over Reilly’s business methods in June,
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Spears no doubt decided that he had no other option but to terminate his business relationship with him. On 2 August over lunch, he ‘very pleasantly’ severed his connection with Reilly.

This was a further blow to Reilly’s already depleted bank balance, which was still bearing the brunt of funding Savinkov’s activities. His chance meeting in Berlin with the wealthy widow Pepita Bobadilla, some four months after parting company with Spears, can therefore be seen as a somewhat fortuitous lifeline.

Like Reilly, much mystery has surrounded Pepita Ferdinanda Bobadilla’s true identity, nationality, parentage and origins. Many have claimed that she was born in Latin America and came over to England, where she found celebrity as an actress. According to an interview Pepita gave to
The Tatler
magazine in October 1918, she was born in Equador.
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On various other occasions over the years she claimed to have been born in Argentina and Chile. Reilly himself told a number of friends and acquaintances that she had an Equadorian mother and an Irish father,
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although it is not clear whether he actually believed this himself or was simply a
willing accomplice in perpetuating the myth. She herself also did much to encourage and perpetuate this myth. The truth, however, is somewhat less exotic and very much more down to earth. Her mother, Isobel, was born in 1862 in Lancaster, the daughter of a flour warehouseman.
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On 5 June 1888 Isobel arrived in Hamburg, and registered at the British Consulate where she informed them she was looking for a job as a servant.
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It would seem that Isobel had met Franz Brueckmann in England and on his return to Germany had followed him. One month after her arrival in Hamburg, on 5 July, she gave birth to a son, Franz Kurt Burton.
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Although Franz Kurt’s record of birth does not indicate the name of his father, he was almost certainly Brueckmann. In fact, Isobel moved into an apartment owned by Brueckmann shortly after Franz Kurt’s birth.

Her second child, Nelly Louise Burton, was also born in Hamburg on 20 January 1891.
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Again, no father’s name appears on the record. Isobel was still living at the apartment owned by Brueckmann at the time, and Brueckmann may possibly have fathered the child too. On 27 April 1892, Isobel returned to England with her two young children in tow.
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Two years later, Isobel gave birth to her third and last child, a daughter named Alice. Again, no father is indicated on any records.
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In 1910 Nelly made her modest entry into show business as a dancer and in 1912 was engaged by the Bal du Moulin Rouge, in the Pigalle district of Paris.
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The Moulin was reputedly the centre of Parisian sinfulness and was famous for having first commercialised the cancan in the 1890s. It was here that she adopted the stage name of Josefina Bobadilla.
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In 1915 the Moulin burnt down and Nelly returned to England. The war had provided a great stimulus to all forms of entertainment, and the theatre in particular. Musicals proved a popular form of escapism, and were packed out by servicemen wanting to make the most of their brief period of leave. Nelly’s initial break in London was with Charles B. Cochran, who recruited her as a chorus girl after an audition in spring 1916.

With more productions and performances came the demand for more actors and actresses. This was good news for chorus girls like Nelly, as the chorus line was a ready source for promoters to tap into. In November 1916 she was given her first acting role by Cochran, who cast her as Gladys in
Houp-La,
which was to be the first production staged at his new theatre, the St Martin’s, which was due to open in December.
Houp-La,
described by Cochran as ‘a comedy set to music’,
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starred Gertie Millar and George Graves. Gertie Millar, eleven years Nelly’s senior, was an old hand and had been on stage since the age of thirteen. She had been the mistress of a Russian businessman, who had only recently left London for New York, by the name of Alexandre Weinstein.
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The London stage was a honey pot for rich ‘playboys’ like Weinstein and Reilly, and it was some three years later in January 1920, after a performance of
Daddies,
at the Haymarket Theatre that Nelly was first introduced to Reilly. It would also seem that Reilly had met her wealthy brother-in-law, Stephen Menzies, during his time in New York. By all accounts, Alice and Stephen Menzies had a very ‘open’ marriage, and it was rumoured that she and Reilly had been more than acquaintances on his return to London. Alice, the more extrovert of the two sisters, threw herself headfirst into the ‘Roaring Twenties’, as an emancipated Flapper, dancing the Charleston till dawn and maintaining her own apartment at Pembroke Mews in Belgravia.
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In October 1920, Pepita married the sixty-year-old playwright Charles Haddon Chambers, thirty-one years her senior.
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The marriage was a great surprise to everyone, not least the forty-year- old widow engaged to Haddon Chambers, who only learned that her intended had deserted her when she picked up the
Evening Standard
the following day.
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Pepita, like her sister, had now found herself a husband of substance and, like Alice, maintained her own apartment, at 35 Three Kings Yard in Mayfair.
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The adjective that could most accurately describe their marriage would have to be ‘short’, for five months later Haddon Chambers died of a stroke at
the Bath Club, leaving the newly wed Pepita the not insub-stantial sum of £9,195.
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Although she had first met Reilly in 1920, her 1931 book tells of a ‘love at first sight’ encounter with ‘Master Spy’ Reilly the year after Haddon Chambers’ death:

My first meeting with Sidney Reilly took place at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. It was in the December of 1922, and the Reparations Commission was in session in the German capital. I was staying there with my mother and sister and among the acquaintances we made was an English delegate on the Commission.
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