Conrad Russell (3 April 1878 – 27 April 1947) was an English farmer and letter writer, who carried on lengthy and intimate correspondences with some of the most celebrated society beauties of his day, including Diana Cooper, Daphne Thynne, and Deborah Cavendish.

Life

Russell was the youngest of the six children of

Lord Arthur Russell Lord Arthur John Edward Russell (13 June 1825 – 4 April 1892) was a British Liberal Party politician. He was born in London on 13 June 1825. He was the second of three sons of Major-General Lord George William Russell and Elizabeth Anne Raw ...

and Laura, the daughter of Paul Louis Jules, Vicomte de Peyronnet. He was accordingly a nephew of the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...

, and a cousin of the philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

, as well as of the latter's son, his namesake

Conrad Russell Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, (15 April 1937 – 14 October 2004), was a British historian and politician. His parents were the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and his third wife Patricia Russell. He was al ...

. He was educated privately, at home and abroad, before attending

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he formed part of a celebrated generation which included his friends

Raymond Asquith Raymond Herbert Asquith (6 November 1878 – 15 September 1916) was an English barrister and eldest son of British prime minister H. H. Asquith. A distinguished Oxford scholar, he was a member of the fashionable group of intellectuals known as ...

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...

Aubrey Herbert Colonel The Honourable Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert (3 April 1880 – 26 September 1923), of Pixton Park in Somerset and of Teversal, in Nottinghamshire, was a British soldier, diplomat, traveller, and intelligence officer associat ...

, and Auberon Herbert.Georgina Blakiston (ed), ''Letters of Conrad Russell (1897-1947)'', John Murray, London, 1987. Post Oxford, Russell engaged in a number of occupations (including employment in the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

and in the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

), none of which he found wholly satisfactory. In the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served in (among other units) the

Bedfordshire Yeomanry The Bedfordshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. Serving intermittently between 1797 and 1827, it was re-raised in 1901 for the Second Boer War. It participated in the First World War before being converted to an artillery re ...

and the

8th Hussars The 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1693. It saw service for three centuries including the First and Second World Wars. The regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in force ...

. A number of his friends were killed and he developed a life long aversion to military life. After the war Russell took up farming. Among his closest friends was

Katharine Asquith Katharine Frances Asquith (; 9 September 18859 July 1976) was an English landowner and patron of the arts. During the First World War, she served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. She was the wife of Raymond Asquith and the daughter-in-law of ...

, the widow of his old friend

. In 1927 Russell took a lease of a farm on her family estate (

Mells Manor Mells Manor at Mells, Somerset, Mells, Somerset, England, was built in the 16th century for Edward Horner, altered in the 17th century, partially demolished around 1780, and restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 20th century. The house, along with ...

, in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

) and there he remained for most of the remainder of his life. Having once unsuccessfully proposed marriage to Mrs Asquith, he subsequently devoted himself to purportedly chaste (if flirtatious) love affairs with Diana Cooper and Daphne Thynne, both of them married and rather younger than him.

Character and letters

Lord Oxford Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half centuries, until the death of the 20th Earl in 1703. ...

provided the following assessment of Russell 40 years after his death:''Thoughts of a Somerset farmer'', The Spectator, 29 May 1987

“…a man of many contrasts: modest and diffident by temperament but clear-cut and forthright in his opinions; a quizzical observer and recorder of odd concrete facts but given to abstract speculation in matters of philosophy and religion; essentially kind but prone to astringency and even tartness in his comments; essentially truthful but a fascinating and shameless embroiderer of the truth; careful in money matters and somewhat absorbed in them, but extremely generous with all he had.”

Russell often exhibited a self-deprecating form of insouciance. On 3 April 1933 he wrote to Diana Cooper:

”…I am 55 today so my course is nearly run. It seems queer but I feel about 23 and very shy, callow and unformed – and quite without any knowledge of the world. I’ve learnt nothing and made a hash of my life. And instead of being humble and repentant I simply don’t care a button.”

A selection of Russell’s letters was published in 1987 by John Murray. Russell’s friend

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

(who appears in Russell’s letters as “Mr Wu”) described him as “one of the most exquisitely entertaining men I have known” and he gave full rein in his correspondence to his gift for (occasionally racy) drollery and gentle satire, combined on occasions with somewhat quizzical metaphysical speculation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Conrad English letter writers 20th-century English farmers Conrad 1878 births 1947 deaths Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War I Bedfordshire Yeomanry officers 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars officers