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The Spy Who Disappeared: Diary of a Secret Mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918
An autobiographical account of a secret mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918. The author, who took the name Ronald Sinclair, was in fact the "missing" British political agent Reginald Teague-Jones, who before his death made available for publication his secret diaries telling of his mission to Baku, a practically unknown theatre of war in World War I. The author, acting alone and aged only 29, was responsible for organizing and maintaining the resistance to Turkish and Bolshevik takeover of the crucial railway linking Turkey and Russia to Afghanistan. After the collapse of the White Russian Armies, Teague-Jones withdrew to Constantinople and was forced to change his name to Sinclair, which he retained for the rest of his life, in fear of Russian retribution.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Reginald Teague-Jones
2 books2 followersReginald Teague-Jones MBE was a British political and intelligence officer. He was active in the Caucasus and Central Asia during the Russian Civil War. For the last 66 years of his life he was known as Ronald Sinclair.
Teague-Jones was born in Lancashire. He was brought up in the former Russian capital, St Petersburg. His father was a language teacher and died when Reginald was still a child. He was educated at a German-run school that specialized in languages where he learned French, German and Russian, and at Bedford School between 1905 and 1907. He later spent two years studying at King's College London, but left without taking a degree.
In 1910, at the age of 21, he joined the Indian Police and was soon transferred to the (British) Indian government's Foreign and Political Department, an organization that had trained earlier players in the so-called Great Game, the clandestine struggle for influence in Central Asia between the Russian and British empires during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Here he became involved in intelligence work on the North West Frontier, undertaking missions in disguise and adding Persian to his knowledge of languages.
In 1917 he was moved to military intelligence at G.H.Q. Delhi and given responsibility for the Persian Gulf. The war in the Middle East was now entering a critical stage with the collapse of Russian forces following the October Revolution and the creation of a power vacuum in the Caucasus.
In 1926 he undertook a trip across Persia in a Model A Ford, ostensibly in the interests of a British business consortium. His account of this trip, Adventures in Persia was published in 1988 just before his death. As Ronald Sinclair, he later served as Vice-Consul in New York from 1941 until his retirement shortly after the war. He died on 16 November 1988, as Ronald Sinclair at a private nursing home in Plymouth, England.
(View full article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginal...)
Teague-Jones was born in Lancashire. He was brought up in the former Russian capital, St Petersburg. His father was a language teacher and died when Reginald was still a child. He was educated at a German-run school that specialized in languages where he learned French, German and Russian, and at Bedford School between 1905 and 1907. He later spent two years studying at King's College London, but left without taking a degree.
In 1910, at the age of 21, he joined the Indian Police and was soon transferred to the (British) Indian government's Foreign and Political Department, an organization that had trained earlier players in the so-called Great Game, the clandestine struggle for influence in Central Asia between the Russian and British empires during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Here he became involved in intelligence work on the North West Frontier, undertaking missions in disguise and adding Persian to his knowledge of languages.
In 1917 he was moved to military intelligence at G.H.Q. Delhi and given responsibility for the Persian Gulf. The war in the Middle East was now entering a critical stage with the collapse of Russian forces following the October Revolution and the creation of a power vacuum in the Caucasus.
In 1926 he undertook a trip across Persia in a Model A Ford, ostensibly in the interests of a British business consortium. His account of this trip, Adventures in Persia was published in 1988 just before his death. As Ronald Sinclair, he later served as Vice-Consul in New York from 1941 until his retirement shortly after the war. He died on 16 November 1988, as Ronald Sinclair at a private nursing home in Plymouth, England.
(View full article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginal...)
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