Lieutenant Colonel John Dymoke Scale DSO,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 27 December 1882) was an

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intellige ...

( SIS) agent, originally from

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Ty ...

in Glamorgan. He was involved in a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loa ...

unit called the Anglo-Russian Commission in St Petersburg, where his responsibilities included running

Mohammed Beck Hadjetlaché Mohammed Beck Hadjetlaché (20 May 1868, he also sometimes stated 1870 or 1872, Istanbul - 4 November 1929, Stockholm) was a Circassian journalist, writer, MI6 ( SIS) and cheka agent. Hadjetlaché used many assumed identities, but his real na ...

. Scale served in the British Indian Army and was first sent to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

in 1912. He qualified as a Russian translator in 1913 and rejoined the

87th Punjabis The 87th Punjabis were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1798, when they were raised as the 1st Battalion, 14th Madras Native Infantry. The regiments first action was in the Battle of Mahidpur dur ...

in 1914. In 1916, Scale served with

Stephen Alley Captain Stephen Alley MC (14 February 1876 - 1969) was a British mechanical engineer and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) agent in pre-revolutionary Russia who may have had an involvement in the murder of Rasputin in 1916 and in a plan to try to ...

and

Oswald Rayner Oswald Rayner (29 November 1888, in Smethwick, Staffordshire, England – 6 March 1961, in Botley, Oxfordshire, England)England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 was a British Secret Intelligen ...

under

Mansfield Cumming Captain Sir Mansfield George Smith-Cumming (1 April 1859 – 14 June 1923) was a British naval officer who served as the first chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Origins He was a great-great grandson of the prominent merchant John ...

at the time of the murder of

Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...

. Whilst a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in St Petersburg, in the weeks leading up to the killing, Scale is recorded as having met with

and

Felix Yusupov Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (russian: Князь Фе́ликс Фе́ликсович Юсу́пов, Граф Сумаро́ков-Эльстон, Knyaz' Féliks Féliksovich Yusúpov, Graf Sumarókov-El'ston; – ...

in the diary of their chauffeur, William Compton. Several other books and documentaries have claimed Scale's involvement in Rasputin's death, or even alleged that Scale commanded Rayner to fatally shoot him. A letter from Alley to Scale provides the best evidence of British Intelligence involvement in the murder and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

that reads: In March 1918, Scale was an SIS bureau commander in Stockholm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scale, John Dymoke 1882 births World War I spies for the United Kingdom Year of death missing