'Unsought Adventure', by Charles Barry

[Uncle George]

I would be interested to know if anyone has read this book. It is a 1939 autobiography, and much of it covers the author's Great War service with the Imperial Russian Horse Artillery in Russia and Romania. I've read a few tantalising contemporary reviews but am hesitating before spending ABE Book's asked for £80. I would welcome further opinion.

 

I have discovered by rooting around the Internet that, firstly, 'Charles Barry' is the pen-name of one Charles Bryson; and secondly, that Charles Bryson/Barry wrote a number of detective novels after the Great War. Indeed, much of this book sounds like the stuff of novels: he walked 120 miles from Germany to volunteer with the Russian Army; he was awarded the St George's Cross, "The Russian VC"; he met King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Romania.

 

And some of his accounts sound rather unlikely: a review of the book tells us that, "A squadron of German cavalry charged the guns, and Barry was only saved from a fatal sabre cut by the fact that the German officer opposing him checked his sabre in a moment of recognition. They had lunched together just before the war. Barry fired and killed the German, but sustained a wound."

 

But his accounts of the Russian army seem very interesting: he found the men with whom he served "kind-hearted but savagely cruel, transparently honest and grossly deceitful, stupidly courageous and unbelievably cowardly, gluttonous and ascetic, sincerely religious and utterly pagan." He tells us that thousands of the men were issued with wooden rifles with bayonets affixed; others had French rifles already obsolete in the 1870s. Barry writes that he later joined the British Miliary Mission, returned to this country, obtained a commission in the British Army and was employed in the secret service in Murmansk. After the war, the book reveals, he worked in the International Labour Office in Geneva.

 

Searching online, I found mention of "Captain Charles Bryson, an Irishman from Belfast" serving with the Russian army, in a letter from Yvonne Fitzroy, a hospital orderly with a unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, serving at Odessa on the Black Sea.

 

Charles Bryson's MIC card, which mentions the International Labour Office in Geneva, gives his Corps as 'Staff' and 'Theatre of War first served in' as 'Russia'.

 

I can find no mention in the 'London Gazette' of his St George's Cross: however, the Gazette of 24 October 1919 shows his award of the Star of Roumania (with Swords); and the Gazette of 5 October 1943 shows him, now with the Intelligence Corps, awarded the MBE.

 

So, some at least of this in some ways rather unlikely account is confirmed by other sources. Is there more to this story than meets the eye? Or less? I'd be grateful if someone who has read it can give an opinion.

 

Thanks.

Edited 18 January , 2017 by Uncle George

[leibregiment]

Thanks for this, just had a quick look and found an site  http://www.celticwomanforum.com/index.php?topic=1005.60;wap2 in which a family member confirms his real name....also interestingly is there appears to be only one copy of the book available anywhere !

To confirm, Commissioned 15 November 1917 specially employed, (appears to be linked to interpreters) Order of the Crown of Roumania (with Swords). Officer Temporary Lieutenant Charles Bryson, General List. (LG , 24 Oct, 1919) MBE; Bryson, Lt. (Local Capt.) Charles, Gen. List. (LG 6th  Feb 1920)

  

 

Also it would appear he was honoured by the Polish government Captain (temporary Major) Charles Bryson, M.B.E. (98032), Intelligence Corps Order of Polonia Restituta. 4th Class London Gazette Friday, 8 October, 1943.

He appears to have been associated with Norton-Griffiths https://europecentenary.eu/john-norton-griffiths-the-englishman-who-destroyed-the-romanian-oil-refineries-and-reserves/ and the destruction of the Romanian oil fields...tho not directly mentioned   

[MaureenE]

There is a Wikipedia page in French

Charles Barry (écrivain)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Barry_(écrivain)

 

Google Translate English version

Charles Barry (writer)

https://translate.google.com.au/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Ffr.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCharles_Barry_(écrivain)

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Uncle George]

On 23/02/2019 at 11:59, leibregiment said:

 

He appears to have been associated with Norton-Griffiths https://europecentenary.eu/john-norton-griffiths-the-englishman-who-destroyed-the-romanian-oil-refineries-and-reserves/ and the destruction of the Romanian oil fields...tho not directly mentioned   

 

Since my OP in 2015, which relied solely on reviews I found on a newspaper archive site, I’ve bought a copy of this book.

 

He mentions Norton Griffiths, but is rather disparaging: “ ... Norton Griffiths boasted loudly of the thoroughness of the havoc he had wrought among those oil wells, but it cannot have been so thorough after all, for within seven or eight months we learned that the Germans had them all in working order again.”

 

It’s a curious book. Towards the beginning of the book Barry seems to be hinting, but without saying so, that he is involved in Secret Intelligence; for instance, he describes a meeting with a mysterious man in a Russian Customs Hall, who spoke “English which was good, but not quite indigenous to any part of the British Isles ...” This man was helpful, and upon leaving handed Barry his card:

 

”That evening I looked at it and read above a St Petersburg address the name: SIDNEY REILLY, Analytical Chemist. What, I asked myself, was an analytical chemist with a name like Reilly doing in Russia? I put the card aside and eventually lost it. I never saw the man again ... I have often wondered since if the Sidney Reilly, spy and mystery man, about whom speculation was at one time rife and books have been written, was the amiable analytical chemist who first helped me into Holy Russia. I never found out, but I have my own opinion.”

 

Why, I asked myself, would Barry describe in such an arch manner a meeting with one who we are clearly to suppose was the famous Sidney Reilly, but pretend to not know who he was? And why does he only hint at his involvement in Intelligence, when in later chapters he describes explicitly and in detail his work as an Intelligence Officer, at one time using the cover of “His Majesty’s Vice-Consul in Galatz” (“Those  readers who think of ‘Secret Service’ as one long round of excitement would be terribly disappointed if its inner workings were demonstrated to them”). I never figured these things out.

 

Anyway, I wrote a little article about Barry, and it was included in the Scottish Women’s Hospitals website:

 

https://www.scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/charles-bryson-his-time-with-the-scottish-womens-hospital-on-the-russian-front-by-kevin-ross/

 

And Forum member Dust Jacket Collector has added my copy of the book’s dust jacket to his website:

 

http://www.greatwardustjackets.co.uk/

 

Edited 24 February , 2019 by Uncle George

[leibregiment]

Great synopsis..having more than a passing interest in Intelligence in Russia  1917-19..I find it interesting that that Bryson/Barry pick on some famous names namely Griffiths & Reilly...to add spice ? also by the time the book was published in 1939 both were dead. 

 

Interesting that Laurence Milner Robinson, Esquire, was appointed Majesty's Consul-General in 1924 for the Bukowina, Bessarabia, the old Kingdom of Roumania, and the Dobrudja, to reside at Galatz who also seems to have been on the periphery of  the Foreign Office intelligence world.

I shall have to find and read the book...but again thanks for bringing this to my/our attention

[Uncle George]

On 24/02/2019 at 15:22, Uncle George said:

Anyway, I wrote a little article about Barry, and it was included in the Scottish Women’s Hospitals website:

 

https://www.scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/charles-bryson-his-time-with-the-scottish-womens-hospital-on-the-russian-front-by-kevin-ross/

 

I see that scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk would appear to have been taken down from the Internet. So, on the slim chance that anyone will ever be remotely interested, and so that it has not been forever lost, here’s that little essay:

 

 

There is a curious incident in Yvonne Fitzroy's 'With the Scottish Nurses in Roumania' (1918): it is September 30 1916 and Yvonne, the former actress and society lady now working as an orderly with the Scottish Women's Hospital, finds herself at Tchernavoda on the Danube. The Hospital had come up the river by barge, and Yvonne writes that as the women were disembarking, they "to our astonishment found an Irishman serving in the Russian Army in charge." Yvonne refers to this man as "Captain B".

 

On October 23 they encounter him again. The women are sitting by a roadside, waiting for the arrival of their lorries during the chaos of a retreat :

 

At last Captain B. passed by in a car, and got out to speak to us. He managed to commandeer a passing lorry [...] We found ourselves at the mercy of an insane driver, who dashed along regardless of anybody, wrecked one refugees' cart, terrified the horses all along the road, and stopped for nothing and nobody. As Captain B. had had to knock him down twice before the poor little man would consent to take us at all he no doubt thought here was a great chance of getting his own back. At last at dusk he charged a cart, made a belated attempt to avoid it, and drove clean off the edge of the road.

 

https://archive.org/stream/withscottishnurs00fitzrich#page/n7/mode/2up

 

 

Who on earth was this man, this Captain B., an Irishman in a position of authority in the Imperial Russian Army? Well, his name was Charles Bryson, and he left an autobiography: 'Unsought Adventure' (1939), written under the pseudonym 'Charles Barry'. In it he gives his own account of this incident:

 

At one place, where I was trying to untangle the traffic, I found Dr. Inglis and one or two members of her staff of the Scottish Women's Hospital standing guard by the roadside over a quantity of hospital equipment and medical supplies. I asked them what they were doing there and was told that they were waiting for one of their lorries to come back for the stuff. I pointed out the impossibility of such a thing. They agreed that things did not look too bright, but said they would wait a while longer. As we were talking I saw a Russian Army lorry coming along slowly with the rest of the fugitives. I ran over and saw that it was actually empty. The driver had not even thought of offering transport to sick or wounded humans. I ordered him to pull in to one side, but he refused point-blank. I repeated my order, but he still refused, and then for the first time since I had attained officer's rank I struck a soldier. He obeyed then, and I packed my fellow countrywomen - more or less - with their effects into the lorry and sent them on their way.

 

 

Charles Bryson was an extraordinary man. He was born in Belfast in 1877 and in a busy life trained for the priesthood; became a monk; became a teacher in Paris; and served with the British secret service in both world wars. He received some modest fame between the wars, as the author of a number of detective novels (featuring Inspector Gilmartin of Scotland Yard).

 

But in 1914 he was travelling; at the outbreak of war he was in Germany, and made his way, by walking the 120 miles, to Russia. At the British Embassy in St Petersburg he was turned down for service with the British Army (on the grounds that he wore glasses). Fluent in Russian, he volunteered for the Russian army:

 

" ... with no knowledge of artillery, a total ignorance of cavalry drill, and the absence of every qualification except for good health and physique and the ability to sit on a horse, I joined the Imperial Russian Horse Artillery." Promotions, decorations and a commission quickly followed.

 

Bryson was serving on the staff of an Army Corps when he was ordered to meet and escort "an English ambulance unit." This was the beginning of his involvement with the Scottish Women's Hospital. He has left us a couple of anecdotes about that remarkable unit:

 

 It was when they were at Ismail, I think, that a curious thing happened. The doctors - I believe Doctors Inglis and Proctor - were sitting at a table when a Russian soldier walked in with his cap cocked at a funny angle and demanded to be treated for a wound. As the fellow appeared to be a little drunk, but otherwise all right, the women began to persuade him to go and sleep it off. He insisted, however, and when asked to show his wound took off his cap to display the handle of a clasp-knife projecting from the top of his skull. It must have been months afterwards when I met the unit again in Odessa. I reminded Dr. Inglis of the incident and asked what had happened to the man with the knife in his head.

 

'Oh,' she told me, 'we took the knife out and he left us in about three weeks, apparently cured.'

 

'Didn't it effect his brain?' I asked.

 

'Probably,' Dr. Inglis replied, 'but it was not obvious. Heaven knows what will happen later, for the knife did not come away without taking some other matter with it.'

 

I don't think I should have liked to meet that soldier later on when inflamed with raw spirit and revolutionary fervour.

 

[...]

 

I received from the members of the Scottish Women's Hospital compliments, which I am sure were sincere, on my excellent English. I admitted that I had learned it in Ireland, but one good lady among them seemed to regard my accomplishment with suspicion. At any rate she was just a little less amiable than the other charming women who composed the unit. A year later I am afraid I had forgotten her existence, but she had obviously remembered me. I was sitting at lunch one day on the veranda of the [Thames] riverside resort which was then known as the Karsino, with a number of other officers, when I was approached by a gentleman who introduced himself as an Assistant Provost-Marshal, with the request that I give an account of myself. I was not particularly polite to the A.P.M. nor were my friends who were with me, and there was something of a wrangle. At last, however he told us the reason for his demand. There was a lady at a table near by who had denounced me to him as a spy. She was positive that she recognized me as a man she had seen in Rumania dressed up in Russian uniform. Even there she had had her suspicions. There was a roar of laughter from my friends [...] and we invited the A.P.M. to sit down with us. I then gave him an outline of my military career up to then and produced a little identity card which had been given me by a certain department of the War Office. I convinced him, I think, that though I must be a queer bird I was not a spy. I don't know what he said to my denouncer. I never saw her again.

 

Bryson's service took him away from the Scottish Women's Hospital. At the outset of the Russian Revolution he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Provisional Government and joined the British Military Mission. He returned to this country, obtained a commission in the British Army and was employed in the secret service in Murmansk. After the war, 'Unsought Adventure' reveals, he worked in the International Labour Organization in Geneva. He served in the Intelligence Corps during the Second war.

 

Charles Bryson died in 1963.

 

 

 

[MaureenE]

The webpage article is available in an archived version

https://web.archive.org/web/20170228234345/http://scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/charles-bryson-his-time-with-the-scottish-womens-hospital-on-the-russian-front-by-kevin-ross/ 

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Uncle George]

12 hours ago, Maureene said:

The webpage article is available in an archived version

https://web.archive.org/web/20170228234345/http://scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/charles-bryson-his-time-with-the-scottish-womens-hospital-on-the-russian-front-by-kevin-ross/ 

 

Cheers

Maureen

Thanks Maureen.