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researchers, governments and their intelligence agencies for well over a century. It has almost become an accepted fact that his real name was Sigmund Rosenblum, partly because of the sheer number of times that this ‘fact’ has been repeated and printed over the passage of time. Many authors have written about Reilly’s origins and his supposed family background. According to Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly was born, ‘not far from Odessa’. 1 EdwardVan Der Rhoer similarly has his birth, ‘in Odessa, a Black Sea port’, 2 as do John Costello and Oleg Tsarev. 3 Michael Kettle, however, claims his place of birth to be Russian Poland, 4 an assertion supported by Christopher Andrew 5 and Richard Deacon. 6
    Reilly himself told numerous stories about his supposed origins. He was, at different times, the son of: an Irish sea captain; an Irish clergyman; or a Russian aristocrat. His first wife Margaret was under the impression that he was the son of a wealthy landowner and came from Poland or Russia. 7 In his book, British Agent, Robert Bruce Lockhart, an envoy sent to Russia by Lloyd George in 1918, stated that Reilly’s parents came from Odessa, although he made no pronouncements upon Reilly’s own place of birth. 8 Among the places in Ireland Reilly claimed to have beenborn were Clonmel in Tipperary and Dublin. 9 While accompanying Brig.-Gen. Edward Spears on a business trip to Prague in 1921, however, Reilly was alleged to have lunched at the British Legation where he recounted stories of his childhood in Odessa. When asked by a Legation official why it was that his passport gave his place of birth as Tipperary, Reilly apparently replied, ‘There was a war and I came over to fight for England. I had to have a British passport and therefore a British birthplace, and, you see, from Odessa, it’s a long way to Tipperary!’ 10 He told Pepita Bobadilla, whom he married in 1923, that being born in Ireland was a cover, and that he had actually been born and educated in St Petersburg, of an Irish merchant seaman and a Russian mother. 11
    Not only was Reilly’s place of birth a mystery, but so too was his age. In 1931 Pepita Bobadilla stated in the first edition of her biographical account of Reilly that he was born in 1872. 12 When she published a longer version in book form, his year of birth became 1874. 13 Robert Bruce Lockhart stated that when they first met, Reilly was in his forty-sixth year, indicating 1873 as his year of birth. 14
    Marriage certificates, immigration documents and passports prior to 1917 equally point to 1873 as being his year of birth. 15 From the date of his recruitment into the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in late 1917, however, Reilly gives 1874 as his year of birth on all official documents. 16 It has been suggested that the main motivation for these conflicting stories was a desire to protect his family, as he was engaged in espionage on behalf of a foreign power, and was thus anxious for their safety should this ever become known. 17 The more we discover about Reilly’s real motivations and behaviour in the ensuing years, however, the more we are led to an alternative theory, namely that he had little or no interest in his family or their fate after he left them, and that instead he was more concerned with masking his Jewishness. 18
    If Reilly had actually written an autobiography, 19 or authorised a biography, the story told would almost certainly have closely resembled that which appears in Robin Bruce Lockhart’s Ace ofSpies. This is hardly surprising, given the fact that a significant part of this book is based upon the anecdotal stories Reilly told his friends, colleagues and acquaintances, particularly Capt. George Hill.
    In essence, Ace of Spies is Reilly as he would like to have been seen by posterity. According to this story, he was born into a minor aristocratic landowning Russian family, in or near Odessa, and christened Georgi. His father was apparently a minor aristocrat and a colonel