A photograph of Trotsky, a bear cub, held on the shoulders of an unidentified sailor on board the battleship HMS Ajax (1912) during the battleship's commission in the Mediterranean. Here she investigated the Bolshevik advance around Sevastopol and eventually arrived off Batumi in late June 1920 until 9 July to cover the evacuation of 'White' Russian forces. The sailor (rating) is in his whites and looking at the camera.

Philip Francis Brooke Blackwell was appointed to HMS Ajax in December 1919 as a midshipman and joined her on 13 January 1920 on the ship's recommissioning at Malta on 14 January 1920. He was discharged from Ajax in December 1920, having been promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 May 1920.