Stephen Alley
{{Short description|British engineer and MI6 agent}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Stephen Alley
| honorific_suffix = MC
| image = Stephen Alley.jpg
| caption =
| alt =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 14 February 1876
| birth_place = House of Yusupov Palace, Moscow, Russia
| death_date = 1969
| death_place = Ware, Hertfordshire
| known_for = {{Plainlist|
- MI6 agent
- Alleged involvement in the murder of Rasputin
- Proven involvement in a plan to try to rescue the Russian Imperial Family, the Romanovs, imprisoned in Ipatiev House in 1918 by the Bolsheviks
}}
}}
Captain Stephen Alley {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MC}} (14 February 1876 – 1969)[https://spartacus-educational.com/SSalley.htm Stephen Alley.] Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 22 October 2018. was a British mechanical engineer and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) agent in pre-revolutionary Russia who may have had an involvement in the murder of Rasputin in 1916 and in a plan to try to rescue the Russian Imperial Family, the Romanovs, imprisoned in Ipatiev House in 1918 by the Bolsheviks.Rappaport, Helen. The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family, St. Martin's Press; 1st U.S. Ed edition, 2018, p. 204-236. {{ISBN| 978-1250151216}}
Early life
Stephen Alley was born on 14 February 1876{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCN-NYDH|title=FamilySearch.org|website=FamilySearch |accessdate=4 December 2023}} at Arkhangelskoye Estate near Moscow.{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9DR-PSY|title=FamilySearch.org|website=FamilySearch |accessdate=4 December 2023}} After being educated in Russia he attended King's College London where he studied English Literature, and later moved to Glasgow University where he took a degree in engineering.
He was commissioned a second-lieutenant in the Surrey Yeomanry on 18 October 1902.{{London Gazette |issue=27483|date=17 October 1902|page=6570}}
Career
After university he joined the family firm of Alley & McLellan Engineers in London. In 1910 he returned to Russia, where he helped build the first heavy oil pipeline to the Black Sea. He became experienced in building rail transport.{{cite book|author=Andrew Cook|title=The Murder of the Romanovs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsxnAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT55|date=15 February 2010|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-4456-0796-2|pages=55–}} He is noted by many authors and documentaries for alleged involvement in the murder of Grigori Rasputin whilst working for the British Military Control Office in Saint Petersburg.{{cite book|author=Nils Ole Oermann|title=Mission, Church and State Relations in South West Africa Under German Rule (1884-1915)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdeXKuIFMQkC&pg=PA235|year=1999|publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag|isbn=978-3-515-07578-7|pages=235–}}{{cite book|author=Douglas Smith|title=Rasputin: The Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=npKqDAAAQBAJ&pg=PR174|date=3 November 2016|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4472-4586-5|pages=174–}} Alley was alleged to be the author of a letter to John Scale on 25 December 1916 that, if authentic, is claimed by BBC History to be "the best proof of British involvement in Rasputin's murder."{{Cite web|url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-history-magazine/20161103/282935269877287|title=|via=PressReader|accessdate=4 December 2023}} Stephen Alley participated in a plan to try to rescue the Russian Imperial Family, the Romanovs, imprisoned in the Ipatiev House in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. The plan did not work out.Rappaport, Helen. The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family, St. Martin's Press; 1st U.S. Ed edition, 2018, p. 204-236. {{ISBN| 978-1250151216}}
Death
References
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alley, Stephen}}
Category:World War I spies for the United Kingdom
Category:Recipients of the Military Cross
Category:British mechanical engineers