At the turn of the 20th century, European monarchs were all related to each other through Queen Victoria’s children, if not through earlier international marriages. This big happy family took a blow when Tsar Nicholas II was arrested in Russia in 1917 and then executed along with his family in 1918. For years, European royalty blamed King George V, leader of the massive British Empire, for not rescuing his cousin.
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But all along, the British Consul at Ekaterinburg, Thomas Hildebrand Preston, who was stranded in Siberia during World War I, was working feverishly to protect the British citizens around him and the Romanovs from the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary factions. As far as the Tsar’s family was concerned, his efforts were futile. Ekaterinburg was liberated just a few days after the execution.
Preston continued his diplomatic career, and found himself in Lithuania when World War II broke out. In 1939 and 1940, he wrote out at least 1200 British visas for Lithuanian Jews, many of them illegal. After retiring from the diplomatic service, Preston worked to set the record straight when rumors of surviving Romanovs cropped up, which happened often, especially concerning the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Read about the unique diplomatic career of Sir Thomas Preston at Helen Rappaport’s blog. -via Strange Company
Source: neatorama