Further to my December 2025 post regarding a new biography about Charles Sydney Gibbes, the author, Romanov historian Helen Rappaport has provided an update on this exciting new publishing project.

In early May, Rappaport wrote on social media:

“I have just completed chapter 8 and am up to 49,000 words, so the book – which will be 14 chapters long – should come in at about 80,000 words. I have now gone past nearly the entire period of Sydney’s life with the Romanovs that has been covered by others – Welch[1], Trewin[2], Benagh[3] etc – though none of them have gone into the detail that I have uncovered during my research, and have also left a lot of things out. Chapter 9 will bring Sydney to Ekaterinburg in August 1918 when he went back after the Whites and Czechs took the city to try and find out what had happened to the Romanovs and visited the Ipatiev House.

“After that I take Sydney along the Trans Siberian to Omsk, Vladivostok and then out to Beijing and finally Harbin – the part of his story that others skipped past, particularly his years in Manchuria. My narrative will be filling in this large gap in the record.

“Here he (photo below) is at the Four Brothers mine with Times correspondent Robert Wilton – the first foreign reporter to go to Ekaterinburg and report back, the two were friends and worked closely together during this time – though alas Wilton’s archive at Times International is hugely disappointing. Sad to say this rather blurry photo is the only half decent version I can find – the version of it in Wilton’s book has been crudely doctored. Sydney on left in macintosh and flat cap, Wllton looking down the mineshaft.”

Helen is still trying to get the book signed to a mainstream publisher. The text should be completed by late summer.

As I noted in my previous post, a fresh and more comprehensive study of Charles Sydney Gibbes, is long overdue. While Helen Rappaport and I do not see eye to eye on Nicholas II, I still maintain that she is the most suitable candidate to write such a book. Let us hope that she is able to find a publisher and bring this new publishing project to fruition.

NOTES:

[1] Welch, Frances (2005) The Romanovs & Mr Gibbes: The Story of the Englishman Who Taught the Children of the Last Tsar. UK: Short Books

[2] Trewin, J. C. (1975) Tutor to the Tsarecvich – An Intimate Portrait of the Last Days of the Russian Imperial Family compiled from the papers of Charles Sydney Gibbes. London: Macmillan

[3] Benagh, Christine (2000) An Englishman in the Court of the Tsar. Ben Lomond, California: Conciliar Press.

FURTHER EADING

[1] Romanov archives of Charles Sydney Gibbes + PHOTOS

[2] Charles Sydney Gibbes (1876-1963) + PHOTOS and VIDEO

© Paul Gilbert. 22 May 2026