The Duke of Bedford | |
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The Duke of Bedford in the House of Lords, by Carlo Pellegrini, 1874
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Born | 16 October 1819 |
Died | 14 January 1891 | (aged 71)
Title | Duke of Bedford |
Tenure | 27 May 1872 – 14 January 1891 |
Other titles | 9th Marquess of Tavistock 13th Earl of Bedford 13th Baron Russell 11th Baron Russell of Thornhaugh 9th Baron Howland |
Successor | George Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Sackville-West |
Issue |
George William Francis Sackville Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford Ella Monica Sackville Russell Ermyntrude Sackville Russell Herbrand Arthur Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford |
Parents |
Lord George William Russell Elizabeth Anne Rawdon |
Francis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of BedfordKG (16 October 1819 – 14 January 1891) was an English politician and agriculturalist.
The son of Major-General Lord George William Russell and Lady William Russell, and the grandson of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was born in Curzon Street, London, and commissioned into the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1838, retiring in 1844. He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire from 1847 until 1872, when he succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his cousin William Russell, 8th Duke of Bedford, and took his place in the House of Lords. In 1886, he broke with the party leadership of William Ewart Gladstone over the First Irish Home Rule Bill and became a Unionist.
He took an active interest in agriculture and experimentation on his Woburn Abbey estate and was President of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1880. On 1 December 1880, he was made a Knight of the Garter. From 1884 until his death he was Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire.