Photos of Churchill's 'spy' cousin sell for £8k

A previously unknown photo album belonging to Winston Churchill's "spy" cousin, Clare Sheridan, has sold at auction for more than £8,000 including fees.

The album contains more than 80 photographs from her secret trip to Soviet Russia in 1920, which led to the British government thinking she was a Russian spy.

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe, from Bristol's Auctioneum, explained there were five bidders from "both sides of the Atlantic", with the piece going under the hammer for £6,600 (£8,250 with fees).

"It's a wonderful result for this special and controversial piece of history," he said.

Mr Stowe, who discovered the album during a routine valuation, described the moment as a "eureka" find.

"I was full of enthusiasm," he said. "It's quite a special moment - things like that don't happen every day."

The auctioneer added: "Sheridan was a such a remarkable character, and the intense bidding just goes to show that there is still plenty of interest in her life."

The Russian Revolution, which began in 1917, caused global unrest.

After an affair with Soviet diplomat Lev Kamenev in London, Ms Sheridan was invited to Russia in 1920.

Mr Stowe noted that while Ms Sheridan travelled under the pretence of sculpting revolutionary leaders such as Lenin and Trotsky, "her activities went a little bit further than just sculpting them".

He said: "It was quite a promiscuous trip, and she was quite a character… a strong, independent, and powerful young woman who knew exactly what she wanted in life."

The album includes rare, annotated photographs of key figures, including the first known image of Bolshevik revolutionary Mikhail Borodin.

The pictures document Ms Sheridan's journey from the Isle of Wight with Kamenev, through Norway, and into the Kremlin.

Mr Stowe noted that many of the photos appeared to be "very generic tourist pictures", yet they capture a unique and personal side of history.

"One of the pictures early in the book shows Clare Sheridan with Lev Kamenev. They're sat on the grass on the Isle of Wight as any young couple would," he said.

The album also includes a signed photograph of Churchill dedicated to Sheridan's daughter.

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