I will be forever grateful to Mark Hornsby for allowing me to ‘man’ his stall at the The Piercebridge Village Summer Fayre, because it provided me with a once in lifetime opportunity.
I did not see many people but one lady in particular caught my attention, she came up to me as she had spotted Bob Beagrie’s collection Civil Insolencies 
Masha told me that Dr Bob had been her tutor when she studied creative writing at Teesside University, therefore she was pleased to see his publication. Masha then commented on I Sing of My Comrades, saying that her father, a Scottish volunteer, had died in Spain, and then just as casually remarked
oh, my Grandfather was in the Russian government before the revolution.
I took down her details and the name of her father and told her I would see what I could find out about her father, we continued chatting, it was then that Masha took my breath away.
Masha told me her Grandfather was Alexander Guchkov. At Keele I studied both History and Politics for my joint honours degree; my History thesis was on the formation of the Labour Party in Middlesbrough and my Politics Thesis was on Trotsky’s interpretation of the Russian Revolution. For this reason I knew the name of Alexander Guchkov, (I still find it astonishing that I can remember him from work I did over 40 years ago, but today walked into a room and forget why I’d gone in here!)
He is certainly memorable: he chaired the Third Duma, he fought against the British in the Second Boer War, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. He served in the Russo-Japanese war, treating the wounded on the Battlefield of Mukden. After the 1905 Revolution he became leader of the Octoberists . It was Alexander Guchkov who led the commission of enquiry looking into the relationship between the Tsarina and Rasputin, which led to the Tsar exiling Rasputin in 1913. When The Great War broke out Guchkov was put in charge of the medical provision on the German Front. In August 1915 Guchkov led the ‘Progressive Group’ in the Duma who demanded that the Tsar hand over more responsibility for running the War to the Duma. When the February revolution broke out Guchkov was put in charge of the Ministry for War, it was Guchkov and Vasily Shulgin who persuaded the Tsar to abdicate.
At the time all I could recall was that Alexander Guchkov had put the pen in the Tsar’s hand and told him to abdicate, which may be because the image above has been used in numerous textbooks. It is Alexander Guchkov who is standing behind the Tsar. In the Provisional Government Guchkov was Minister for War. Although I was excited by this I had promised Masha that I would look into her father’s time in Spain.
The first thing I discovered was that Robert’s family was from Scotland; his father, Robert Sr, had been born in Aberdeen in 1870. Robert Sr is shown in the 1911 census as an ‘Assistant Manager, Marine Engine works.’
Robert Traill Jr was born in Monkseaton, Whitley Bay on 19th August 1909, his mother Adeline had been born in North Shields. Robert’s older sister, Phyllis Maud, had been born in Whitley Bay in on 14th October 1907.
This is where the trail (excuse the pun) goes cold, I was unable to find the family in the 1921 Census, there appears to be no record of Robert Sr, Adeline and their two children.
Amendment – After Posting my friend Tam Watters found them in the 1921 Scottish Census, this is behind a paywall which explains why I could not find them.
Tam let me know that they, Robert, Adeline and Robert Jr are shown in Lanark in the 1921 Scottish Census. This gave me a line of enquiry which enable me to trace them through Robert Sr’s career.
Robert’s sister Phyllis does not appear on the record, she is not with them in Glasgow, she is instead a visitor in the household of her Great Grandfather Peter Brown a ‘Shipowner’ at 7 Alma Place, North Shields. It appears Phyllis is staying with her grandparents Herbert and Eva Brown.
7 Alma Place, North Shields
I won’t go into detail as the focus here is Robert Jr, this obituary in the Shields Daily Gazette in October 1928 gives us a good summary of Robert Sr’s career.
Robert Trail, therefore was born in Monkseaton whilst his father worked for the Wallsend Slipway Company. In 1920 the family moved to Glasgow when he was appointed manager of the Fairfield Ship Building and Engineering Company.
After a few months of hunting I found Robert Traill Sr arriving in London in June 1926, he had travelled on The Nelson Line ship, the Highland Piper from Argentina. Interestingly his profession is now shown as ‘Farmer’. The proposed address is listed as The Roehampton Club, Barnes, London.
This is where it got really interesting, because I had found Robert Sr’s brother in the 1921 Census at 2 Woodlands Road, Barnes, which is next to the Roehampton Club. John Arthur Edward Traill is listed as the Head of the household, but as a visitor, with his profession given as:
Polo pony breeder in the Argentine.
John’s wife Antielta was born in Rosario, Argentina, and their eldest son James was born in Buenos Aires, their other son John has Barnes, London SW as his birthplace. The Wilkipedia page for the Roehampton Club has this to say on John Traill.
Polo and equestrianism at Roehampton Club recovered quickly after the First World War. The club was now being managed by Clement Charles Lister who with the assistance of John Arthur Edward Traill and the Miller brothers took a keen interest in the development of newcomers to the sport of polo. There were a number of key polo players at the club during this time including 10-goal Charles Thomas Irvine Roark, 9-goal Eric Horace Tyrrell-Martin and John Arthur Edward Traill
John Trail is also listed as winning the Argentine Open; The Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo ten times in his career. The first time in 1904 with the North Santa Fe team, which consisted of :
José E. Traill, Eduardo Traill, Juan A. E. Traill, Roberto W. Traill
The North Santa Fe team won the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo cup in 1906, but this time Roberto W. Traill is replaced by Roberto Traill – Robert Sr, who is in the winning team five times (1906, 1908, 1911, 1912 and 1913), in 1913 Robert scores eight goals, although John surpasses him with 10.
Robert Jr went to Oundle School and then Kings College, Cambridge, where he took History, played cricket and rowed. Robert was at Cambridge at the same time as The Cambridge five who were all at Trinity College, Robert was at Kings College, just a courtyard away.
Whilst Robert was at Oundle School his father died, on 16th October 1928, this possibly explains why he didn’t go up to Cambridge until 1931. The newspapers report that Robert Trail Sr left over £72,000 to his widow, Adeline in his will.
In April 1934 Robert was fined £1/10/0
Robert Traill, an undergraduate, of Lansdowne Road, Bedford, was fined £1/10/0 for causing a motor-car to be on the highway during the hours of darkness without lights at Elstow on 18th March. Bedfordshire Times 13th April 1934
Shortly after graduation, in 1934, Robert travelled to Moscow to attend the International Lenin School, he took the short course and then stayed on to work as a translator for the Communist International (Comintern).
It was in Moscow that Robert met and later married, in November 1935, Vera Gochkova.
I could write books on Vera Traill, but as I’m writing about Masha’s father, Robert, I’ll just give you the description that accompanies her MI5 files as a taster:
Vera Alexandovna SOUVTCHINSKY, aliases GOUTCHKOVA, TRAILL, MIRSKY: Russian at birth and British by marriage. The daughter of Alexander GOUTCHKOV, a member of KERENSKY’s government, Vera TRAILL fled to Paris with her family, visited the UK regularly during the 1920s, and acquired British citizenship through a marriage of convenience to Robert TRAILL, a Communist journalist later killed while with the International Brigade. KRIVITSKY said she was a Russian agent in Paris, and the French police identified her as a close associate of the group believed to have been responsible for murdering Ignace REISS. She came to the UK in 1941, settling in Oxford for the duration of the war
Robert left for Spain in February 1937, leaving the pregnant Vera in Moscow; two months later Vera travelled to Paris where she is said to have recruited White Russians for the International Brigade.
To ensure the posts are not overly long, Robert’s time in Spain will be in a separate post.