Biography of Stephen Alley

Stephen Alley studied Science and Arts at the University in 1894-1895. He became an MI6 officer, suspected of involvement in Grigori Rasputin's assassination in 1916.

Alley was born in Moscow, where his father, John, an engineer, worked on Russian railway construction. Educated in Russia, Alley returned to the UK where he studied English Literature at King's College, London, and then attended classes in Mathematics, Chemistry and English at the University of Glasgow.

Recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service in 1914, Alley went to work for Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Hoare, the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service station in Petrograd (St Petersburg). It was during this period of service when Grigori Rasputin was assassinated in 1916 while in the employment of Tsar Nicholas II. Stephen Alley and his fellow officers, John Scale and Oswald Rayner were suspected of being the chief organisers of the assassination. A suspicion which 21st century forensic techniques seem to be confirming, with the University of Dundee's Professor Derrick Pounder among those to analyse the available evidence.

Alley returned to England in March 1918, where he was eventually transferred to MI5. According to passages in his unpublished memoirs, he was apparently sacked from MI6 when he refused to assassinate Joseph Stalin.

He died on 6th April 1969.

Summary

Stephen Alley
Born 1876.
Died 6 April 1969.
University Link: Student
GU Degree: Science and Engineering, 1894-95;
Occupation categories: civil servants; engineers
Record last updated: 4th Dec 2012

University Connections

University Roles

• Student

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Stephen Alley, matriculation 1894-95