There is a great similarity between the military support that Britain is providing for the Ukrainian Army in 2022 and the help provided by the UK government to General Anton Denikin and General Pyotr Wrangel in Ukraine in 1920.
British medical support to Russians fighting in Ukraine during the first World War had ended when Lady Muriel Paget pulled out her nurses in 1918 and escaped from the Red Terror to Vladivostok. The mission in South Russia reduced in size in April 1920 with the Senior British Military Commander responsible for 150 officers and 450 other ranks. A huge amount of military materiel was provided by the Royal Navy in the Black Sea and there were several casualties, including the last British officer to be killed by the Bolsheviks, 24 year old William Frecheville, who was captured close to the Luhansk Oblast.
One soldier who survived being captured was 19 year old Private Lionel Grant of the Gloucestershire Regiment. He was transferred to Moscow in October 1920 and joined Brian Horrocks’ group in the Andronovsky Prison. Here’s hoping that the current British prisoners in Russia will have a happy ending; similar to Grant and the last British prisoners-of-war of World War I.
Rupert Wieloch 