You may remember his name from the iconic 1983 BBC series, Reilly, Ace of Spies, but who was the real man said to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond character?
Join International Spy Museum Historian and Curator Dr. Andrew Hammond in conversation with historian Benny Morris, author of Sidney Reilly: Master Spy, about one of the most colorful and best-known spies of the twentieth century. Emerging from humble beginnings in southern Russia, Reilly was an inventive, multilingual businessman and conman who became a virtuoso of espionage. By the early twentieth century, Reilly was working as an agent for Scotland Yard, spying on émigré communities in Paris and London, with occasional sorties to Germany, Russia, and East Asia. He spent World War I in the United States, brokering major arms deals for tsarist Russia, and then joined the ranks of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service. He tried to overthrow the Bolshevik regime in Moscow before eventually being lured back to Russia and executed. The Spy Museum is proud to exhibit the only object in existence that illustrates the connection between Reilly and R.H. Bruce Lockhart, co-conspirator of the plot! Join the historians as they sift through the reality and the myth of Reilly’s life to paint a fascinating portrait of one of the most intriguing figures from the golden age of spies.
Following the conversation, you’ll be able to ask questions via our online platform.
Auto-generated closed captioning will be available for this program.