CAPTAIN F. N. A. CROMIE
CB DSO RN (1882 - 1918)
W0rld War 1's Hidden Hero
Churchill called him 'a man of great abilities'. He was mentioned in despatches during the Boxer Rebellion in China where, as an 18 year old Midshipman he fought alongside Austria's submarine legend, von Trapp, (known today by The Sound of Music). He was commanding a submarine by the age of 24, receiving the Royal Humane Society's Bronze Medal for saving a drowning sailor in the Channel. In 1915 he took a flotilla of submarines into the Baltic to fight alongside the Tsar's Navy, and soon made his presence felt to the Germans, at one time sinking five ships in one day. He was decorated by Tsar Nicholas II with the equivalent of the Russian VC, received the Legion of Honour from the French, the Distinguished Service Order, and after his murder in August 1918 was the only man to receive a CB posthumously from King George V.
Raconteur, mediator, fluent in Russian, non-smoking, teetotal, skilled water colour artist, lover, respected by Tsarists and Bolsheviks alike, loved by all his men, he faced challenges above and beyond the call of duty as the Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out. This site, therefore, is dedicated to his exploits, which include his association with the so-called 'Ace of Spies', Sidney Reilly, (the inspiration for James Bond), Robert Bruce Lockhart, Lenin, Trotsky and the doomed officers and admirals of the Tsar's navy. When Britain's Petrograd Embassy staff went back home to escape the revolution, Cromie stayed as envoy at the embassy when his 200 men had been sent home, desperately in love with Sophie Gagarin, a glamorous Russian socialite.
A man of honour and compassion, he was the Navy Blue Pimpernel who saved many men from the revolution's wrath, and died a hero's death, pistol in hand, defending the embassy against intruders. When his funeral cortege passed along the banks of the Neva, the sailors of the new Soviet Navy spontaneously formed ranks and gave him their salute.
The time has come for his country to know more about Francis Cromie, and we aim to campaign for a plaque to be erected in his honour on the old embassy building in St. Petersburg. This is a story yet to be told to a wider audience.
Raconteur, mediator, fluent in Russian, non-smoking, teetotal, skilled water colour artist, lover, respected by Tsarists and Bolsheviks alike, loved by all his men, he faced challenges above and beyond the call of duty as the Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out. This site, therefore, is dedicated to his exploits, which include his association with the so-called 'Ace of Spies', Sidney Reilly, (the inspiration for James Bond), Robert Bruce Lockhart, Lenin, Trotsky and the doomed officers and admirals of the Tsar's navy. When Britain's Petrograd Embassy staff went back home to escape the revolution, Cromie stayed as envoy at the embassy when his 200 men had been sent home, desperately in love with Sophie Gagarin, a glamorous Russian socialite.
A man of honour and compassion, he was the Navy Blue Pimpernel who saved many men from the revolution's wrath, and died a hero's death, pistol in hand, defending the embassy against intruders. When his funeral cortege passed along the banks of the Neva, the sailors of the new Soviet Navy spontaneously formed ranks and gave him their salute.
The time has come for his country to know more about Francis Cromie, and we aim to campaign for a plaque to be erected in his honour on the old embassy building in St. Petersburg. This is a story yet to be told to a wider audience.
In the late Autumn of 1915, following the success of British submarines fighting alongside their Russian Allies in the Baltic under the control of Lt. Cdr. Max Horton, the Admiralty decided to capitalize on Horton's success by sending out a further 4 subs to join the Baltic flotilla at Reval (today's Tallin) in Estonia. The boats were under the command of Francis Cromie, in charge of the newly built HMS E19.
So, here we go then, into what looks like 4 years of centenary commemoration for ‘the war to end all wars’. All the major TV historians will be working flat out on commissions for programmes which will tell us all about the horrors Tommy Atkins had to face, and expand in detail on such disasters as the Somme and Passchendaele. No doubt they’ll be looking at Gallipoli and Scapa Flow.
And in the midst of all this, will we be looking at the biggest social upheaval during this tragic conflict - the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which saw a battered, disintegrating Russia pull out of the war, opting for a challenging peace, thus leaving the rest of us with no ally in the east? I hope so. Then again, some will ask if this had anything to do with Britain’s part in the war. The answer is yes.
For 200 Royal Navy Sailors who served in the Baltic Submarine Flotilla between 1914-1918, life may not have been as excessively grim as it was for those poor souls in the trenches. Yet the combination of submarine warfare, the vicious frozen Baltic winters and, in 1917, the outbreak of the Revolution, which saw their Russian allies suddenly turn on their Tsarist officers in a murderous mass mutiny, all contributed to a complex, hidden chapter of the Great War which has always been overlooked.
The central figure in this story is Captain Francis Newton Allen Cromie, CB DSO RN, who took over command of the Baltic Flotilla from Commander Max Horton in 1915. Cromie remains a true British hero, yet today he is largely forgotten. The next four years may offer a chance for this situation to be rectified. Teetotal, fluent in Russian, he had been in command of a submarine at the age of 24. He’d fought with the Naval Brigades as an 18 year old Midshipman in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and received the China Medal. He also received the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medal for risking his own life to save a drowning sailor in the Channel. He was a skilled watercolour artist, a great orator and raconteur, and his skills as a mediator earned him the sobriquet among some sailors and diplomats as ‘the Navy Blue Pimpernel’. He stepped in on various occasions and, by power of persuasive argument, saved the lives of numerous Russian sailors who fell under the threat of the commissars of the new, fledgling Soviet Navy. He was decorated by Tsar Nicholas II with the equivalent of the Russian VC, the Order of St. George, received the Legion of Honour from the French, and is the only man to receive a posthumous CB from George V. On one day in October 1915, in charge of his submarine, HMS E19, he sank five enemy vessels. He also sank the German cruiser, the Undine. Cromie was respected by Trotsky and Lenin, but when the Russians pulled out of the war and succumbed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, one of the conditions was that Cromie’s subs were to be surrendered to the Germans. Yet although Cromie was offered massive personal sums by the White Finns for his 7 submarines, he remained loyal to the Admiralty, took the boats out into the Gulf of Finland and scuppered them all.
Cromie could have come home with his men, but he opted to stay behind in Russia, ostensibly to carry on his war. The upper-class staff at the British Embassy had fled back to the UK in the face of the revolution, so Cromie, designated ‘Naval Attaché’ took over the Petrograd embassy building as de-facto representative of the crown. Yet his real reason for remaining in Petrograd was his love affair with Sonia Gagarin, a beautiful Petrograd socialite. Once Cromie had becomed entangled with an allied plot in 1918 to ferment counter-revolution against the Bolshevik government, he found himself out of his depth, dealing with the cream of British Military Intelligence, such as Ian Fleming’s original inspiration for James Bond, the so-called ‘Ace of Spies’ Sidney Reilly, and the British envoy Robert Bruce-Lockhart. Tricked into a compromising situation by wily Bolshevik agents, who knew of the allied plans to land troops in Murmansk in an attempt to unseat Lenin, Red Guards invaded the British Embassy in Petrograd on August 31st 1918. Cromie, a hero to the end, died from a bullet to the head, fighting on the embassy’s grand staircase, pistol in hand. He is buried in an un-marked grave in St. Petersburg’s Lutheran cemetery.
When his cortege passed along the banks of the Neva, the somewhat slovenly revolutionary sailors of the fledgling Soviet Navy, lounging on moored destroyers along the embankment, spontaneously formed disciplined ranks and gave him a final salute. Above all else, he had been a fellow sailor, a fair man, respected by all, no matter what their politics.
Back in England Cromie’s wife, probably unaware of his romantic dalliance in Russia, collected his posthumous CB from King George. Churchill referred to him as ‘a man of great ability’. And then, he became little more than a footnote in British history. Hopefully, this will change.
WE ARE CONVINCED THAT CROMIE'S STORY IS THE IDEAL VEHICLE FOR A TV DOCUMENTARY (AND EVEN A FEATURE MOVIE). WE'RE HAPPY TO PITCH TO ANYONE IN THE INDUSTRY WHO FINDS THIS CHAPTER OF HIDDEN HISTORY AS FASCINATING AS WE DO. PRODUCERS, DIRECTORS, INVESTORS - USE OUR CONTACT FORM AND WE'LL BE IN TOUCH IMMEDIATELY.
And in the midst of all this, will we be looking at the biggest social upheaval during this tragic conflict - the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which saw a battered, disintegrating Russia pull out of the war, opting for a challenging peace, thus leaving the rest of us with no ally in the east? I hope so. Then again, some will ask if this had anything to do with Britain’s part in the war. The answer is yes.
For 200 Royal Navy Sailors who served in the Baltic Submarine Flotilla between 1914-1918, life may not have been as excessively grim as it was for those poor souls in the trenches. Yet the combination of submarine warfare, the vicious frozen Baltic winters and, in 1917, the outbreak of the Revolution, which saw their Russian allies suddenly turn on their Tsarist officers in a murderous mass mutiny, all contributed to a complex, hidden chapter of the Great War which has always been overlooked.
The central figure in this story is Captain Francis Newton Allen Cromie, CB DSO RN, who took over command of the Baltic Flotilla from Commander Max Horton in 1915. Cromie remains a true British hero, yet today he is largely forgotten. The next four years may offer a chance for this situation to be rectified. Teetotal, fluent in Russian, he had been in command of a submarine at the age of 24. He’d fought with the Naval Brigades as an 18 year old Midshipman in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and received the China Medal. He also received the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medal for risking his own life to save a drowning sailor in the Channel. He was a skilled watercolour artist, a great orator and raconteur, and his skills as a mediator earned him the sobriquet among some sailors and diplomats as ‘the Navy Blue Pimpernel’. He stepped in on various occasions and, by power of persuasive argument, saved the lives of numerous Russian sailors who fell under the threat of the commissars of the new, fledgling Soviet Navy. He was decorated by Tsar Nicholas II with the equivalent of the Russian VC, the Order of St. George, received the Legion of Honour from the French, and is the only man to receive a posthumous CB from George V. On one day in October 1915, in charge of his submarine, HMS E19, he sank five enemy vessels. He also sank the German cruiser, the Undine. Cromie was respected by Trotsky and Lenin, but when the Russians pulled out of the war and succumbed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, one of the conditions was that Cromie’s subs were to be surrendered to the Germans. Yet although Cromie was offered massive personal sums by the White Finns for his 7 submarines, he remained loyal to the Admiralty, took the boats out into the Gulf of Finland and scuppered them all.
Cromie could have come home with his men, but he opted to stay behind in Russia, ostensibly to carry on his war. The upper-class staff at the British Embassy had fled back to the UK in the face of the revolution, so Cromie, designated ‘Naval Attaché’ took over the Petrograd embassy building as de-facto representative of the crown. Yet his real reason for remaining in Petrograd was his love affair with Sonia Gagarin, a beautiful Petrograd socialite. Once Cromie had becomed entangled with an allied plot in 1918 to ferment counter-revolution against the Bolshevik government, he found himself out of his depth, dealing with the cream of British Military Intelligence, such as Ian Fleming’s original inspiration for James Bond, the so-called ‘Ace of Spies’ Sidney Reilly, and the British envoy Robert Bruce-Lockhart. Tricked into a compromising situation by wily Bolshevik agents, who knew of the allied plans to land troops in Murmansk in an attempt to unseat Lenin, Red Guards invaded the British Embassy in Petrograd on August 31st 1918. Cromie, a hero to the end, died from a bullet to the head, fighting on the embassy’s grand staircase, pistol in hand. He is buried in an un-marked grave in St. Petersburg’s Lutheran cemetery.
When his cortege passed along the banks of the Neva, the somewhat slovenly revolutionary sailors of the fledgling Soviet Navy, lounging on moored destroyers along the embankment, spontaneously formed disciplined ranks and gave him a final salute. Above all else, he had been a fellow sailor, a fair man, respected by all, no matter what their politics.
Back in England Cromie’s wife, probably unaware of his romantic dalliance in Russia, collected his posthumous CB from King George. Churchill referred to him as ‘a man of great ability’. And then, he became little more than a footnote in British history. Hopefully, this will change.
WE ARE CONVINCED THAT CROMIE'S STORY IS THE IDEAL VEHICLE FOR A TV DOCUMENTARY (AND EVEN A FEATURE MOVIE). WE'RE HAPPY TO PITCH TO ANYONE IN THE INDUSTRY WHO FINDS THIS CHAPTER OF HIDDEN HISTORY AS FASCINATING AS WE DO. PRODUCERS, DIRECTORS, INVESTORS - USE OUR CONTACT FORM AND WE'LL BE IN TOUCH IMMEDIATELY.