Francis Cromie (played by
Barry Stokes) opens fire on Bolshevik gunmen invading the British Embassy in
Petrograd, Russia in a fictionalised scene from the episode “End Game” in the
TV series Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983)
Francis
Cromie (1882-1918), a Royal Navy officer, who Winston Churchill once referred
to as “a man of great abilities” is today a largely forgotten figure.
Although his
death made news headlines across the world, his extraordinary life has only had
a minuscule of exposure to a wide audience; the most significant been through a
fictionalised depiction in the 1983 British television drama series, Reilly: Ace of Spies. Cromie, who
attained the rank of Acting Captain, was portrayed as a commander.
Cromie died
in a hail of bullets on Saturday, August 31st 1918 during an invasion of the
British Embassy in Petrograd by Bolshevik forces angered by British efforts
aimed at overthrowing the government established by Vladimir Lenin. It was the
day after Lenin had been shot and seriously injured by Fanny Kaplan in an
assassination attempt as he was entering his car after giving a speech at the
Hammer and Sickle, a Michelson arms factory in south Moscow. And British troops
were at the time fighting on Russian soil as part of an expeditionary force
which, while ostensibly to promote British interests in securing the use of
Russian ports for the supply of munitions to Czech forces to enable the
re-opening of the war effort on the Eastern Front, was interpreted as a hostile
intervention in the Russian Civil War.
Cromie had
become involved in the intrigues of two men who aimed to extinguish Bolshevik
power: Robert Bruce Lockhart, a British Foreign Office diplomat and Sidney
Reilly, the legendary “Ace of Spies”, who was working for MI 1(c), the
precursor of MI6.
His portrayal
in the aforementioned series as an officer who is vain, punctilious and
stubbornly dedicated to duty veers into the cartoonish, but, perhaps, contains
elements of truth. His dedication to duty as a Midshipman fighting during the
Boxer Rebellion earned him a mention in dispatches and as a pioneer submariner
won him the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He was also decorated by Tsar
Nicholas II. And while the hair-combing fop of Reilly who stands alone on top of a grand staircase with two guns
in hand as he is gunned down by Cheka agents is decidedly over the top, he did
oppose the intrusion and, according to the British Foreign Office, Cromie
killed three of the intruders before succumbing to overwhelming firepower.
There was
much more to the man than a fleeting appearance in the series could portray. He
was a skilled negotiator who earned the respect of friend and foe alike. The Boston Globe edition of Friday,
September 6th 1918 reported that “during the Russian revolution, he handled the
situation with the greatest tact and earned the respect of the Extremists for
his fair dealing.” Nicknamed the “Blue Pimpernel” for his actions in saving
many lives during the revolution, Cromie’s funeral cortege prompted a
spontaneous formation and salute from the ranks of the new Soviet Navy as it
made its way along the banks of the River Neva.
© Adeyinka
Makinde (2020)
Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England.
