Edward Brittain and Homosexuality

Vera Brittain wrote to her brother Edward Brittain on 20th February, 1917:

"You and I are not only aesthetic but ascetic - at any rate in regard to sex. Or perhaps, since "ascetic" implies rather a lack of emotion, it would be more correct to say exclusive - Geoffrey is very much this, and Victor, and Roland was. What I mean by this is, that so many people are attracted by the opposite sex simply because it is the opposite sex - the average officer and the average "nice girl" demand, I am sure, little but this. But where you and I are concerned, sex by itself doesn't interest us unless it is united with brains and personality; in fact we rather think of the latter first, and the person's sex afterwards... I think very probably that older women will appeal to you much more than younger ones, as they do me. This means that you will probably have to wait a good many years before you find anyone you could wish to marry, but I don't think this need worry you, for there is plenty of time, and very often people who wait get something well worth waiting for."

On 15th June, 1918, the Austrian Army launched a surprise attack with a heavy bombardment of the British front-line along the bottom of the San Sisto Ridge. Edward led his men in a counter-offensive and had regained the lost positions, but soon afterwards, he was shot through the head by a sniper and had died instantaneously. He was buried with four other officers in the small cemetery at Granezza.

Alan Bishop, the author of Letters From a Lost Generation (1998), points out that his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hudson, had ordered an investigation into Brittain's homosexuality: "Shortly before the action in which he was killed, Edward had been faced with an enquiry and, in all probability, a court martial when his battalion came out of the line, because of his involvement with men in his company. It remains a possibility that, faced with the disgrace of a court martial, Edward went into battle deliberately seeking to be killed."


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWbrittainE.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jbrittain.htm

Oswald Rayner and the Assassination of Rasputin

Richard Cullen, the author of Rasputin: The Role of Britain's Secret Service in his Torture and Murder (2010), claims that Oswald Rayner fired the shot that killed Rasputin.

On 7th January 1917, MI6's Stephen Alley wrote to John Scale in Romania: "Although matters have not proceeded entirely to plan, our objective has clearly been achieved. Reaction to the demise of Dark Forces (a codename for Rasputin) has been well received by all, although a few awkward questions have already been asked about wider involvement. Rayner is attending to loose ends and will no doubt brief you on your return."

Richard Cullen, the author of Rasputin (2010), has argued that the assassination of Grigory Rasputin had been organised by Scale, Oswald Rayner and Stephen Alley: "Rasputin's death was calculated, brutal, violent and slow and it was orchestrated by John Scale, Stephen Alley and Oswald Rayner through the close personal relationship that existed between Rayner and Yusupov." Cullen adds: "Given the clear and supportable assertions that he (Scale) was involved in the plot to kill Rasputin, was this the reason for his absence from Petrograd?"In 1918 Oswald Rayner was posted to Stockholm where he served under John Scale. He recruited Russian speakers to infiltrate Russia. He returned to Russia the following year and served in Vladivostok.

Rayner left the British Army in 1920 but in 1921 he was in Moscow as part of a trade mission. In 1927 Rayner joined forces with Felix Yusupov to translate his book, Rasputin: His Malignant Influence and his Assassination, into English. Oswald Rayner died in Botley, Oxfordshire, in 1961.

In 2010 Michael Smith, the author of Six: A History of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (2010), argued that Oswald Rayner took part in the assassination of Grigory Rasputin.


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSrayner.htm