The Real James Bond

Sidney Reilly, Ace of Spies - The Inspiration for Secret Agent 007?

May 19, 2009 Martin Bell

Russian-born British spy Georgi Rosenblum spoke seven languages, seduced many women, and was the first "super-spy". His missions included a plot to assassinate Lenin.

James Bond, the character invented by Ian Fleming, is thought by many to be based on a real-life spy called Georgi Rosenblum. Rosenblum worked for the British Secret Service. Rosenblum became known as Sidney Reilly, and he was central to several high-risk missions of international importance.

Georgi Rosenblum Leaves Ukraine, Sigmund Rosenblum Arrives in Britain

Although there is some doubt about his exact birth date, it is agreed that was born on 24th March, 1873 or 1874, in Odessa, Ukraine. According to his own account, he faked his death in Odessa and stowed on a British ship to Brazil, where he in one incident saved the lives of a British intelligence expedition. As a result, he claimed, he was rewarded with £1,500 and a British passport.

His biographer, Andrew Cook, disputes this, and believes that he robbed the money from two Italian anarchists in Paris, after murdering one of them. From Paris, he fled immediately to Britain. Both accounts suggest the date he arrived in Britain was 1895, and that he changed his name to Sigmund Rosenblum.

Sigmund Rosenblum Becomes a Spy

Rosenblum spoke seven languages. His language skills brought him to the attention of William Melville, who was then superintendant of Special Branch, and who later became the head of SSI (fore-runner of MI6, British equivalent of the CIA). This was Rosenblum's first step on the Secret Service ladder. Around this time (1896), he sold his own formula "miracle cures" to make money. He started an affair with the wife of one of his patients, Rev Hugh Thomas, and it is likely that he eventually killed Thomas with poison. On the announcement of Rev. Thomas' death, Rosenblum arrived at the scene calling himself Dr. T. Andrew, and certified that Thomas had died of influenza. Two months later Margaret Thomas, the Rev Thomas' wife, inherited £800,000. Rosenblum married Margaret in August, 1898, using the occasion to change his name to Sidney Reilly.

Sidney Reilly Secret Missions

Reilly was involved at the highest level in several internationally significant operations for SIS, any one of which would have marked him as an important spy. Only a very brief summary is possible here, but his most notable operations were:

• Gathering information about oil deposits in the Russian Caucasus and reporting his findings to British Intelligence
• Working as a double agent for the British and Japanese in Port Arthur, Manchuria, stealing the harbour defense plans so that Japan could navigate through the minefields and attack
• "The D'Arcy Affair": Enticing William D'Arcy to sell oil rights in Mesopotamia to Britain, instead of the French de Rothschilds. He did this disguised as a Catholic priest
• At the Frankfurt International Air Show, he stole a component from a crashed German aircraft, and replaced it with an inferior version. He presumably had prior knowledge of the crash.
• Posing as a welder, he killed the foreman of a German armaments plant in Essen in 1909, and stole weapon plans before mailing them back to Britain
• During World War I, he was parachuted behind German lines many times. He allegedly attended a conference of the German High Command, although Cook [1] disputes this.
• Most significant of all was his involvement in the attempt to kill the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in 1918.

How Fleming Knew of Reilly

Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was a close friend of Sir Robert Lockhart, who told him of Reilly's many exploits as a spy, adventurer, and seducer of women. By 1925, five years after his torture and assassination by the Cheka (Bolshevik Secret Police), Reilly was a household name in Britain. Fleming worked for British Intelligence himself, and ran a group of special commando forces known as 30 Assault Unit, from whom some of his Bond ideas probably originated. He also knew many real British spies, from whom other inspirations emanated, so it is likely that James Bond is a montage of Fleming's many influences.

Summary

The character of James Bond was probably based on a real spy named Georgi Rosenblum, aka Sidney Reilly. Like James Bond, Reilly was a linguist, gambler, womaniser, and had a love of fine food and wine.

References

Cook, Andrew., Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, Tempus Publishing (2004)

The copyright of the article The Real James Bond in Military History is owned by Martin Bell. Permission to republish The Real James Bond in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Reilly, Ace of Spies, 1 Year Before His Death

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Aug 20, 2009 3:24 PM

Guest :

Riley is a famous agent. Much publicised (especially by himself) and his exploits are the subject of many books and also a sucessful television series. That Fleming would use such a visible prototype for Bond I think is doubtful? I feel it is more cridible that he would draw on agents he actually knew and given his role in the Secret Service during WWII he did know a number of active agents. I think that Conrad O'Brien ffrench who was a personal friend of both Ian and Peter Fleming is a better potential source for the Bond character? He met both Ian and Peter in the 30's in Austria He was running an extensive spy network keeping tabs on the rise of Hitler under the auspicies of Stuart Menzies (M?) and Claude Dansey. He was an operative of the Z nework which was outside the conventional Secret Service system that had been fatally compromised and was largely known to the Nazi's. Conrad ffrench was a flambouyant figure hiding in plain view and moving in the highest social circles. He threw lavish parties; some of which Ian attended, he reputedly played a mean hand of Baccarat as well. Another aspect which is appealing is that until ffrench wrote his much censored autobiograpy in the 80's he was unheard of and only now is begining to be cited as an active agent of the time. This is a secret agent that stayed a secret. That Riley was a superb agent there is no doubt but he was also a great self publicist and too obvious a choice for Bond. Bond was after all more Ian Fleming than anyone else but I think ffrench was a seminal influence on both Ian and Peter and likelier candidate for the 'real' James Bond.
Paul Atkinson Cleethorpes uk

Aug 21, 2009 5:48 AM

Martin Bell :

There was no single individual used as the basis for Bond. There were many components to the Bond man, as you have said, and not least Fleming himself!

One of the main reasons for Reilly being an important part of the Bond "collage" has been hidden to some degree by the Bond films. They depict Bond as a suave charmer, and man of integrity. The Bond books, however, show him as a selfish liar, misogynist, and conman. This picture is very much more like that of the real Reilly than most of the other candidates!

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