R. H. Bruce Lockhart
 R. H. Bruce Lockhart      ( journalist, author, spook, propagandist, diplomat, footballer) | ||||||||||||
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| Born | 2 September 1887 | |||||||||||
| Died | 27 February, 1970 (Age 82) | |||||||||||
| Alma mater | Fettes College | |||||||||||
| Spouse | Jean Bruce Haslewood | |||||||||||
| Member of | Political Warfare Executive | |||||||||||
| Relatives | • Sandy Bruce-Lockhart | |||||||||||
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Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart was a British spook who was active in the early years of the Soviet Union.
Activities
After a brief failed attempt at being a rubber planter in Malaya, he joined the British Foreign Service and was posted to Moscow as Vice-Consul.
Lockhart was Acting British Consul-General in Moscow when the first Russian Revolution broke out in early 1917, but left shortly before the Bolshevik Revolution of October that year. He soon returned to Russia at the behest of UK Prime Minister Lloyd George and Lord Milner as the United Kingdom's first envoy to the Bolsheviks (Russia) in January of 1918 in an attempt to counteract German influence. Lockhart was asked in March 1918 to persuade the new Soviet government to allow a Japanese army onto Soviet territory to fight Germany on the Eastern Front. He was unsuccessful in this endeavour.
In 1918, Lockhart and fellow British agent, Sidney Reilly, were dramatically implicated in a plot to assassinate Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. He was accused of plotting against the Bolshevik regime and, for a time during 1918, was confined in the Kremlin as a prisoner and condemned to death. However, his life was spared in an exchange of "secret agents" for the Russian diplomat Maksim Maksimovich Litvinov.
He later wrote about his experiences in his autobiographical book, Memoirs of a British Agent (1934).
Lockhart was also a friend of the occultist Aleister Crowley, and was renowned for his expertise with the magic 8-ball.
During World War II, Lockhart became director-general of the Political Warfare Executive, co-ordinating all British propaganda against the enemy. He was also for a time the British liaison officer to the Czechoslovak Government in Exile under President Edvard Benes.
After the war, he resumed his writing career, as well as lecturing and broadcasting, and had a weekly BBC broadcast to Czechoslovakia for over 10 years.
Death
Lockhart died in 1970 at the age of 83.
In Fiction/Works
See Sidney Reilly, a. k. a. Reilly, Ace of Spies
