To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable help:

In particular I am indebted to Betty Aikenhead and Muriel Harding-Newman (the daughters of John Scale); Edward Harding-Newman (John Scale’s grandson); Sandra Noble (Stephen Alley’s granddaughter); Michael Alley (Stephen Alley’s second cousin); Dr John Alley (from the American branch of the Alley family); Charles Alley (from the South African branch of the Alley family); Gordon Rayner (Oswald Rayner’s nephew); Caroline Rayner (Oswald Rayner’s daughter); Myra Whelch (Oswald Rayner’s first cousin once removed); Michael Winwood (Oswald Rayner’s first cousin twice removed); Dmitri Kennaway (stepson of Joyce Frankel, Oswald Rayner’s sister); Laurence Huot-Soloviev (great-granddaughter of Grigori Rasputin); 3rd Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor (grandson of David Lloyd George); Mark Lane (grandson of William Compton); Svetlana Hodakovskaya (Senior Scientist, Museum of Political History, St Petersburg); Professor Derrick Pounder (Senior Home Office Forensic Pathologist and Head of Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee); Professor Vladimir V. Zharov (Senior Forensic Pathologist, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow) and to HM Government. As a result of an approach to the Cabinet Office, the Government agreed to provide me with a briefing on the British Intelligence Mission in Petrograd for the purpose of this book.

John Francis and John Power of Francis & Francis Investigations have played a key role in tracing the surviving relatives and associates of the British officers involved in the plot and indeed many other key individuals whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents played a part in the story.

I am also grateful to Bill Adams; Professor Christopher Andrew (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge); Dr Michael Attias; Jordan Auslander; Dmitri Belanovski; Vanessa Bell (Assistant Archivist, News International Ltd); Gill Bennett (Chief Historian, Foreign & Commonwealth Office); Robin Darwall-Smith (University College Archivist, Oxford); Howard Davies (The National Archives); Corinne Fawcett (University of Nottingham Archives); Susheel Gill; Stephen Griffith; Dr Nicholas Hiley (University of Kent); Rachel Hosker (Archivist, University of Glasgow); Professor A.V. Hoffbrand (Royal Free Hospital, London); Igor Kozyrin (Military Medical Archive, St Petersburg); Professor Christine Lee (Royal Free Hospital, London); Alexi Litvin (State Archive of the Russian Federation, GARF, Moscow); Natasha Nikolaeva; David Penn FSA (Keeper of the Department of Exhibits & Firearms, Imperial War Museum, London); Sarah Prescott (Archives Assistant, King’s College, London); Kevin Proffitt (Senior Archivist, American Jewish Archives); Clare Rider (Inner Temple Archives); Michael Rosetti (Archives of the New York State Supreme Court);Graham Salt; Laura Scannel (Bar Council Archive); Simon Sebag Montefiore; Professor Robert Service (St Antony’s College, Oxford); Oleg Shishkin; Galina Sveshnikova (Yusupov Palace, St Petersburg); Mari Takayanagi (Archivist, House of Lords Record Office) and John Wells (Department of Manuscripts, Cambridge University Library).

Furthermore, I would like to thank Bill Locke at Lion Television (Executive Producer of the BBC Timewatch film Who Killed Rasputin?) whose unstinting support and encouragement enabled me to take this project forward. I am also indebted to John Farren (Editor of the BBC Timewatch series) for commissioning this story and thus enabling the new evidence surrounding Rasputin’s murder to be presented to a wider public. Thanks must also go to all those involved in the production of Who Killed Rasputin?, in particular to Michael Wadding, Lisa Charles and Richard Cullen, for their part in making it such a powerful and thought-provoking film.

A special thank you also goes to Margaret Ashby; Sophie Bradshaw; Alison Cook; Julia Dvinskaya; Elaine Enstone; Monica Finch; Carolyn Jardine; Denise Khan; Ingrid Lock; Patrick Ooi; Janie New; Hannah Renier; Beryl Rook; Bob Sheth; Andy Watts; Caroline Zahen; and to RP Translate who facilitated the translation of source material into English. Finally, my thanks go to my publisher Jonathan Reeve for his support throughout this project.