The Right Honourable George W. E. Russell PC |
|
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Under-Secretary of State for India | |
In office 19 August 1892 – 21 June 1894 |
|
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
Preceded by | George Curzon |
Succeeded by | The Lord Reay |
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department | |
In office 12 March 1894 – 21 June 1895 |
|
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Earl of Rosebery |
Preceded by | Herbert Gladstone |
Succeeded by | Jesse Collings |
Personal details | |
Born |
London, England |
3 February 1853
Died | 17 March 1919 London, England |
(aged 66)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Liberal |
Alma mater | University College, Oxford |
George William Erskine Russell PC (3 February 1853 – 17 March 1919), known as George W. E. Russell, was a British biographer, memoirist and Liberal politician.
Russell was born in London, England, on 3 February 1853, the youngest son of Lord Charles Russell, sixth son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford. His mother was Isabella Clarisa Davies, daughter of William Griffith Davies, of Penylan, Carmarthenshire. He was educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford.
Though he entered University College as a Scholar, he obtained only a Pass degree. Ill-health, particularly myelitis, put paid to any chance of academic distinction.
Russell was Liberal Member of Parliament for Aylesbury from 1880 to 1885. and for Biggleswade from 1892-1895. He was appointed by William Ewart Gladstone as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board from 1883 to 1885 and as Under-Secretary of State for India from 1892 to 1894. Under Lord Rosebery he was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1894 to 1895. He was also an Alderman on London County Council from 1889 to 1895. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1907, and held the honorary degree of LLD from St Andrews University. He was the author of the biography The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone (1891). Russell was a journalist by profession, and a close ally of the Grand Old Man, a home ruler, when Gladstone presented the bill to the Commons for the second time on 13 February 1893.