Sticking my oar in after what seems like an interminable absence (writing a book, and no, not one on the IF) I apend below an article which I had published in BBC History Magazine last year:
"Last Tsar rejected secret British rescue plan in 1917
The Russian revolution of February 1917 deposed Tsar Nicholas II and he and his family were detained under comfortable house arrest at their palace at Tsarskoe Seloe outside Petrograd. Initial talks between the Provisional Russian Government and the British for them to be exiled to Britain fell through as it was felt that the Empress’ German origins and the unpopularity of the Tsarist Regime would outrage British public opinion at a sensitive time.
Among the few Britons in Russia were a unit of Royal Naval armoured cars, commanded by Conservative MP Oliver Locker Lampson. He had met the Tsar earlier in the war and had, more recently, been warned by the Russian Minister, Kerensky, that Nicholas’ life might be in danger if Bolshevik elements took over the Government. Lampson decided to mount a rescue operation of his own.
“It appeared so easy to rescue him that I decided that it should be done” he wrote. Using a distant relative (referred to as “Vladimir”) as a go-between, Lampson began to ply the guards with vodka, cigarettes and food while at the same time making contact with the Tsar. The plan was for Nicholas to shave off his prominent beard, slip out past the inebriated guards and dress in the uniform of Lampson’s orderly, Tovell. He would then be sent by rail to Archangel, smuggled aboard a ship, and sent to Britain.
Early on in the plot Vladimir decided that the royal barber was not to be trusted and was trained by the unit barber, Wells, to cut hair. Vladimir’s job was to smuggle Tovell’s uniform into the palace grounds, shave the Tsar, help him into Tovell’s uniform and slip him past the sentries. Nicholas was then to “sit beside me as my orderly and take orders, like opening the door for me, and standing to attention” wrote Lampson. “The moment the alarm of his escape was got out, my unit was to go to the authorities and offer their services in helping to track down the escaped prisoner”.
At the last moment the plan collapsed. “The Tsar absolutely refused to be rescued unless his wife and family could be saved also.” Lampson and his unit returned to England. Kerensky moved the Royal Family to Siberia in anticipation of the Bolshevik coup of October 1917. Isolated in the depths of Russia they were murdered by the Bolsheviks in July 1918."
I've been in touch with Locker Lampson's son who has said that his father had a tendency to exaggerate and, as another researcher has expressed it to me "to project himself into events he wasn't really involved in". Needless to say the document that mentions this is in LL's papers at the Leeds University Russian Archive.
On the subject of Digby-Jones, all the evidence (including his Army Service record) points to him being in Ekaterinberg to make contact with the Czechs but he was at least a British agent in the town at the time. An RNVR Lieutenent named Cunningham was in the vicinity at some point round about the time of the killing, as was a Russian Naval Officer om a special mission for British Naval Intelligence. Meinertzhagen never claimed to have been in Russia and I've been unable to find any references to any plans (occasionally mentioned by others) or organisation that he might have had in Russia. It has been claimed that he worked for MIR, Military Intelligence's special section dealing with Russia 1918-1922(?) but the War Office List places him quite firmly in another MI section at the time.
When I can find the Public Record Office that refers obliquely to a British rescue attempt in 1917 (without going into any detail) I'll post here.
Good to be back
Phil Tomaselli
