To go back a bit, Paul Pavlovich Rodzianko was one of the leading riders of his generation, and competed in showjumping events Britain before WW1. He was a military attache in London at the time of the Revolution, and, finding himself jobless from November 1917, joined the British Army as a Private. However, Sir Alfred Knox pulled strings on his behalf and Rodzianko was soon made a Colonel and despatched to Ekaterinburg, where he was involved in the Sokolov investigation.
Late on, he became coach to the extremely successful Irish showjumping team of the 1930s - presumably this was when he married Anita Leslie. The marriage was not a success - possibly because Rodzianko's main priority was horses, and he was anyway over 30 years older than she was.
Ann