FOR years, Maxwell Nasmyth’s family feared he was a Walter Mitty character.

His tales of wondrous adventures around the world, including a meeting with Russian dictator Joseph Stalin and a trip on billionaire Aristotle Onassis’ yacht seemed too far-fetched to be true.

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Dashing Max had an intriguing past Credit: Supplied

Max pictured in Russia in the 1950s Credit: Supplied

Not to mention a trip from Africa with a cargo of wild monkeys.

But decades later, it turns out Max was most likely a real-life James Bond 007 and that his fantastical tales of derring-do are true.

Mystery also surrounds the existence of a missing diamond Faberge egg worth millions and whether it could be sitting in a safe deposit box….in Preston.

The revelations follow 15 years of research by genealogy experts and Max’s relative Robin Maudsley who has written a book about his enigmatic cousin, who was fluent in at least 10 languages, had a doctorate in law from Cambridge and a licence to fly large aircraft.

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Robin, 74, said: “We always thought Max was a bit of a Walter Mitty but we’ve found documents that show he had a special branch number, likely for MI6, pictures which show him in Moscow’s Red Square in the early 1950s and his passport has stamps from all over the world.

“He was quite eccentric and with his upper class accent, would phone the family saying he was in some exotic location or another that people hadn’t heard of in that era, let alone visited.”

While most of the family put Max’s tales down to a very active imagination, Robin was always fascinated by a very revealing visit from his cousin in the 1990s.

The former technician said: “He sat down on my settee and the kids started playing with his walking stick.  

“He grabbed it back quickly and it suddenly clicked and, as he moved his arm, I could see there was a blade inside it.

“I said ‘that’s dangerous’ and he tapped the side of his nose and said, ‘no, no, this is dangerous’ and opened his coat jacket. There was a gun in a leather holster strapped to his chest.

Robin Maudsley has sent years researching his cousin’s life Credit: PP.

Max cut an impressive figure Credit: PP.

Max owned a receipt for a Smith & Wesson weapon Credit: PP.

“He was in his sixties then and just didn’t seem the sort of person who would carry a gun. 

“I’d only met him four or five times before and all I remembered as a child was this great big tall giant of a man.  The thought of someone who stood out that much working as a spy is quite amusing really.

“Whenever someone in the family  asked him about his job, he would just act mysteriously and talk about diplomatic immunity.”

Max, who lived in an apartment in Westminster, London, died in hospital in 2011.

Shortly after, Robin received an unexpected call from city probate firm Fraser and Fraser, which is featured on BBC’s Heir Hunters. 

As Max’s closest living relative, Robin, 74, was appointed estate trustee, leading him to a huge collection of passports, documents and other possessions, including three gold-topped canes.

Max also had £10,000 in cash in a bag which included consecutive-numbered two dollar bills, which a contact told Robin are typically issued by the Pentagon.

Hidden deep among Max’s belongings was a small card showing he was a gun-carrying member of the secret service – with a branch code suggesting he was a real-life 007.

Robin said: “That confirmed everything to me.

“This was his job. That kind of licence isn’t something an organisation just hands you – you have to obtain it from the Government.

“He told the family he was on a yacht with Aristotle Onassis and that he was acquainted with Stalin and shared a funny story with a friend about buying monkeys in Africa for medical research and sharing a plane back to Britain with them.

“His passports show a man who never travelled the same return route twice and almost every location he visited was near an American military base.

“There’s an image of him in Red Square in Moscow and he spent two years in Japan from 1954, based at the American installation in Yokohama, a decade after the atomic bomb.

“It also emerged he was a government diplomatic who was at the scene of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.”

American dollars with consecutive numbers were among Max’s possessions Credit: PP.

Max travelled all over the world at a time when most Brits could only dream of visiting such places Credit: Supplied

Max in later life with wife Moira Featherstone Haugh Credit: Supplied

Max, who was 90 when he died, left behind another intriguing mystery.

Friends of Max have told Robin his cousin bought an expensive Faberge egg – potentially worth millions – sometime in the 1950s and that it is stashed away in a security vault, most likely in Preston.

Robin said: “I spoke to a friend of Max who said the egg had gold and diamonds on it and was advertised for sale in a national newspaper.

“It was bought by a stranger who wanted to hide their identity and that describes Max to a tea.

“His friend, who Max showed the egg to, said he might have put it in a safety box in London but there’s also talk it could be in Preston because Max’s mum lived here.

“Max had a thing for Faberge and owned the brand’s pin and cufflinks but none of them were recovered after his death. He had moved from a mansion house in London to a small apartment so perhaps they were lost in the move or he put them somewhere safe with the egg?”

Robin believes that Max’s travels to Russia and Japan point at him being a duplicitous agent for Russia, America and Britain and has now published a book called ‘Was My Cousin a Triple Agent?’ about his cousin’s life.  He is hoping people who knew Max will get in touch.

Robin said: “He was the real James Bond. I genuinely believe that.  I don’t think I’ll ever know one hundred percent of everything about his life but I’m going to keep researching.” 

Could you be the heir to a fortune?

Every year there are thousands of unclaimed estates in England and Wales.

While probate companies try and track down relatives due for a windfall, Brits can check if they are due a fortune they had no idea existed.
The Government publishes a list of unclaimed estates — known as Bona Vacantia, or “ownerless goods”, which is updated daily and can be found at www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
You won’t find estate values but they must be worth at least £500 to be listed. 
You can search the list yourself and make a claim, but the process can be expensive and time-consuming.
You’ll have to build a family tree, listing birth, marriage and death dates, and pay for copies of certificates for each person between you and the deceased.

Neil Fraser, partner at Fraser and Fraser, said: “In all our years of probate research, Max’s case stands out as one of the more intriguing we have ever encountered.

“Robin’s dedication to uncovering the truth has been extraordinary, and the evidence he has assembled paints a picture of a man who operated at the very highest levels, a life that even now is not fully understood.

“Cases like this remind us that behind every estate, no matter how privately a person lived at the end, there can be an extraordinary story waiting to be told.”