John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

The Right Honourable The Earl Russell KG GCMG PC FRS
Russell in 1861
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 29 October 1865 – 28 June 1866
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Viscount Palmerston
Succeeded by	The Earl of Derby
In office 30 June 1846 – 23 February 1852
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Succeeded by	The Earl of Derby
Leader of the Opposition
In office 28 June 1866 – 3 December 1868
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	Benjamin Disraeli
In office 23 February 1852 – 19 December 1852
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	The Earl of Derby
Foreign Secretary
In office 18 June 1859 – 3 November 1865
Preceded by	The Earl of Malmesbury
Succeeded by	The Earl of Clarendon
In office 28 December 1852 – 21 February 1853
Preceded by	The Earl of Malmesbury
Succeeded by	The Earl of Clarendon
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 23 February 1855 – 21 July 1855
Preceded by	Sidney Herbert
Succeeded by	Sir William Molesworth, Bt
Lord President of the Council
In office 12 June 1854 – 8 February 1855
Preceded by	The Earl Granville
Succeeded by	The Earl Granville
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
In office 30 August 1839 – 30 August 1841
Preceded by	The Marquess of Normanby
Succeeded by	Lord Stanley
Home Secretary
In office 18 April 1835 – 30 August 1839
Preceded by	Henry Goulburn
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Normanby
Personal details
Born	John Russell (1792-08-18)18 August 1792 Mayfair, Middlesex, England
Died	28 May 1878(1878-05-28) (aged 85) Richmond Park, Surrey, England
Political party	Liberal (1868–1878)
Other political affiliations	Whig (until 1868)
Spouse(s)	Adelaide Lister (m. 1835; d. 1838) Frances Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound (m. 1841)
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Religion	Church of England
Signature

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC, FRS (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was a leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister on two occasions during the mid-19th century. Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, his great achievements, says A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his indefatigable battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally his efforts were largely successful. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist, so that "He was more concerned with the removal of obstacles to civil liberty than with the creation of a more reasonable and civilised society. Nevertheless Russell led his Whig Party into support for reform; he was the principal architect of the great Reform Act of 1832. As Prime Minister his luck ran out. He headed a government that failed to deal with a famine in Ireland that caused the loss of a quarter of its population. Taylor concludes that as prime minister, he was not a success. Indeed, his Government of 1846 to 1852 was the ruin of the Whig party: it never composed a Government again, and his Government of 1865 to 1866, which might be described as the first Liberal Government, was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal party also.

Russell was born small and premature into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a Duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell," but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861, and transitioned into the House of Lords.