Robert Tor Russell (1888–1972) was a British architect. In his position as Chief Architect to the Public Works Department of the Government of India, he is primarily associated with the development of the city of New Delhi in the early 1930s. He designed some of the city's most notable buildings and was the architect of Connaught Place, the financial centre of the new capital. Russell also served with distinction during the First World War, and later, after retiring from India, became a civil servant for the British Government.

Early life

Robert Tor Russell was born in

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding ...

, Hertfordshire in 1888 and was educated at

Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in The Harpur Trust, born from the endowments left by Sir William Harpur in the six ...

. In 1906, he became a pupil of his father, the architect S. B. Russell (1864–1955), and qualified to practice in 1913. In 1914, he was offered the position of assistant to

John Begg John Begg, commonly known as Jack Begg, (20 September 1866 – 23 February 1937) was a Scottish architect, who practised in London, South Africa and India, before returning to Scotland to teach at Edinburgh College of Art from 1922 to 1933. L ...

, consulting architect to the Government of India.

Career

Military service

Russell's career in architecture was interrupted by the First World War. He served in Mesopotamia (Iraq) with the

Artists Rifles The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles is a regiment of the Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R). Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regime ...

and was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

for action during the British advance on Turkish-held Baghdad in the early months of 1917. His citation was as follows: 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in charging the enemy's trench which was strongly held. He then led a bombing attack and cleared two-hundred yards of the trench. Later, he maintained his position for four hours, when reinforcements arrived'.

New Delhi

In 1919 he returned to India and rose to become Chief Architect to the

PWD In Unix-like and some other operating systems, the pwd command (''print working directory'') writes the full pathname of the current working directory to the standard output. Implementations Multics had a pwd command (which was a short name ...

. In this position he led the team that established the monumental architecture of New Delhi according to the neo-classical model envisaged by

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

. His main creative period was between 1929 and 1933. During this period he designed

Teen Murti Bhavan The Teen Murti Bhavan (''Teen Murti House''; formerly known as Flagstaff House) was built by British as the residence New Delhi of the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. However, He stayed there for 16 years until his death on 27 May ...

(Flagstaff House) originally for the Commander in Chief of the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...

; it subsequently became the residence of

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India du ...

. The Eastern and Western Courts on Janpath (Queensway) built to accommodate Indian legislators were Russell's work, as were the bungalows numbers 1,3,5,7 Lok Kalyan Marg, which now comprise

7, Lok Kalyan Marg 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, formerly 7, Race Course Road, is the official residence and principal workplace of the Prime Minister of India. Situated on '' Lok Kalyan Marg'', New Delhi, the official name of the Prime Minister's residence complex is ''P ...

, the official residence of the Indian Prime Minister. Russell also designed

Safdarjung Airport Safdarjung Airport is an airport in New Delhi, India, in the Safdarjung (Delhi), neighbourhood of the same name. Established during the British Raj as Willingdon Airfield, it started operations as an aerodrome in 1929, when it was India's secon ...

, National Stadium, Delhi, and several colonial mansions and government housing in the area which is known as Lutyens' Delhi In 1931, he designed the round New Delhi General Post Office (''Gole Dak Khana'') building in the

Gole Market Gole Market is a neighborhood in the heart of New Delhi, India built within a traffic roundabout by Edwin Lutyens in 1921. It is one of New Delhi's oldest surviving colonial markets and is considered an architecturally significant structure. T ...

locality. Situated inside a busy roundabout earlier known as ''Alexandra Place''. He also designed the

Pataudi Palace The Pataudi Palace, also called Ibrahim Kothi, is a palace of the former ruling family Pataudi family in Pataudi town of Gurgaon district (now Gurugram district) in Haryana state of India. Passed from the last ruling nawab, Iftikhar Ali Khan, ...

for the Nawabs of Pataudi, in

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ...

. Russell's most obvious legacy is Connaught Place, two concentric circles of colonnaded streets modelled after the

Georgian architecture Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, Ge ...

Royal Crescent The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent in the city of Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian ...

in the English city of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, which became the commercial hub of the City. He was appointed CIE for his work on the development of New Delhi in 1930.

Later life

Russell retired from India in 1941 and returned to Britain whereupon he took on the position as Chief Planning Inspector for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government until 1954. He had married Ethel Hatch in 1921 and they had one son and one daughter. He retired to Tiverton, Devon where he died in 1972.Who was Who

Gallery

File:Columns at Connaught place.JPG, Columns at Connaught Place File:Teen murti bhavan ,New Delhi.JPG,

, New Delhi File:Western Court - IMG 1936.JPG, Western Court, New Delhi File:View of Eastern Court Queensway, New Delhi (Photo Division photo number 2887).jpg, Eastern Court, New Delhi File:Safdarjung Airport Terminal Building.JPG,

File:Pataudi Palace.jpg,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Robert Tor 20th-century English architects 1888 births 1972 deaths People educated at Bedford Modern School People from Hitchin British people in colonial India Artists' Rifles officers British Army personnel of World War I Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Architects from Hertfordshire Civil servants in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government