Slightly built but strong young man with wavy yellow hair and blue eyes.
Father was a secretary at the British Embassy in Vienna who married an Austrian countess. Max (Maximilian Wenscelas Ransome in full) went to school in both England and Austria and was a junior gentleman in waiting at both courts with close friends of both sexes. It was only just before the war that he secretly joined the British Secret Service. He has been on missions on both sides of the front, though not in Vienna where he might well be spotted and shot. He is a good shot with pistol and rifle and an expert duelist with sabre. He speaks fluent German in several dialects and at least adequate Hungarian, Serbian, Russian and Romanian.