Alexander Sergeyevich 'Alec' Denissieff (1899 - 1926)

Person Notes:
— He attended the Imperial Alexander Lyceum in St. Petersburg, and a family photo survives picturing him with his older brother, Serjack, in their Lyceum uniforms.

— A short note on a handwritten family tree (compiled by one of Alec's English cousins) reads as follows:
"Wounded in aeroplane factory – got pneumonia and got TB. Bolshies gave him half rations till he died in 1926."

Memories written by his youngest sister, Mariamne:
"Alec had a collie, not a Scottish sheep dog but the long nosed breed with very thick fur. He hated being brushed and had to be muzzled as he could easily have bitten you. His name was Don.

On the north side of the house was a large field where we skied in the winter. A drive ran along the nearer side where I learned to ride a bicycle, my father standing at one end waiting for me and my brother Alec setting me off. There was a stretch of land along the river which must have been on our land where barges were moored. One day Alec found a greyhound that had fallen into one. He retrieved it and brought it home. Father made enquiries and the owner took it away, not before it had managed to jump through a closed window.

Mother died in the spring of 1916. . . . We had bought, some months earlier, a plot of land on the river Vuoksa. The wooden house which was being built unfortunately burned down through the carelessness of a workman with his cigarette. We had rooms above a grocer's shop and bathed a lot. It was here that Alec taught me to swim.

In the autumn of 1917, the revolution was brewing and troubles had started with mobs fighting the police in the streets. Father very wisely contacted Granny and Grandfather in Nice and arranged for us girls to leave Leningrad with Mlle Labarre. As Serjack was starting university and Alec was finishing his secondary education, Father did not think they should leave. He thought the revolution would only last a few months, and we would then return home. "

— About the time of Alec's birth, his mother hired a nanny, Emma Pugh (later Bate), an English nurse who would care for all five Denissieff children. She saved a number of photos from her time with the Denissieff family, offering a rare glimpse into the private life of a family in Imperial Russia.