I've been looking for information about Jessie Handyside, who allegedly worked for the imperial family in Russia sometime between 1878 and 1905, and in the course of some Google searches came across fragmentary mentions of Heath (see below), but have no record of the sources. If you come across any references to her, or a photograph, I'd be interested to hear.
Charles Heath (1826-1900) a graduate of Cambridge University, went to Russia before the Crimean War. One of his first positions was that of English tutor to the Grand Dukes Sergei and Paul, the two youngest sons of Alexander II. After holding professional positions at the Imperial Alexander Lyceum and the Naval Academy, he was appointed tutor in English to the two eldest sons of the Tsarevich Alexander (later Alexander III). From that time (1879) until his death (1900), he remained an intimate of the Imperial Family, a very close friend of Alexander III and his family. Alexander's son, Nicholas (later Nicholas II), was evidently very fond of him; he presented him to Queen Victoria when he was visiting England in the summer of 1894. On his death, all the imperial family, except for Nicholas who was in the Crimea, attended his funeral.
A lot of memorials in the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg have been lost, possibly destroyed during the Siege of Leningrad in the 1940s. I'm not aware of any list of those that survive, but there may be one somewhere.
There are numerous photos of Heath on the web.
There may be more information in Rappaport's paper, but I have not seen that yet.
Ian Johnson
