Richard Meinertzhagen was one of these men. Born in 1878 in England, to a family of German descent, Richard was raised in Knightsbridge in a very comfortable style. A grand uncle had left a sizeable fortune to Richard's father and the family was pretty well off.
At http://www.spreadeagleranch.com/notes96.... a few facts about Meinertzhagen's early life are mentioned in a brief review of the book, Duty, Honor Empire: The Life of Richard Meinertzhagen, by John Lord.
Richard was one of ten children who can only be described as 'pampered'. Riding lessons, with personal grooms for safety, several homes, and an eccentric uncle who bought Richard an elephant as his christening gift, and went on a crying jag over missing vegetables. The family had famous friends, like Florence Nightingale and the philosopher Richard Spencer.
After school, and a short time in the family business, Richard entered the Army; and was posted to Kenya as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers. He apparently served with native Masai troops under his command, and gained a reputation for being ruthless when necessary.
One of the major components of Meinertzhagen's character began being developed in 1910, when he was in Odessa, in the Russian Empire. He rescued a young Jewish girl from a Russian man during one of the periodic pogroms that the Russians hosted at the turn of the century. He became a proponent of a Jewish state in Palestine, because he felt the Jews had gotten a raw deal from other peoples; and he was impressed by the Biblical promise that "the Holy Land forever remain Israel's inheritance." according to his diary. He vowed that he would help the Jews whenever and however he could.
Meinertzhagen spent the years before World War I in the normal round of Army assignments, and some that were not so normal. His presence in Odessa apparently had ties with British intelligence. He also served in India before being returned to Africa during the opening months of World War I. As Captain Meinertzhagen, he was active in Intelligence during the invasion of German East Africa. He put a talent for deviousness into play, and created severe inroads into the ranks of German agents, going so far as to sacrifice one of his own agents to incriminate the most effective German agent, with the result that both of them were shot.
