Mary Du Caurroy Russell, Duchess of Bedford, (née Tribe; 26 September 1865 – ca. 22 March 1937) was a British

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

. She was honoured for her work in founding hospitals and working in them during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. She later financed and took part in record breaking flights to Karachi and Cape Town.

Early and personal life

Born at Stockbridge,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, she was the daughter of Walter Harry Tribe, Anglican Archdeacon of

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, and his wife, Sophy Lander. On 30/31 January 1888, she married Lord Herbrand Russell at

Barrackpore Barrackpore (), also known as Barrackpore,is a city and municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the India, Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Barrackpore subdivision. The city is a part of the area covered by Ko ...

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. When Lord Herbrand inherited his childless brother's titles in 1893, she was styled as the Duchess of Bedford. Her only child,

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

, was born on 21 December 1888. During the early 1900s she became one of the first Western women to study the Japanese martial art of

jujutsu Jujutsu ( , or ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu (both ), is a Japanese martial art and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponent ...

, and she was featured in a series of instructional photographs for the book "The Fine Art of Jujutsu" (1905), written by Emily Diana Watts.

Work and activism

A major area of organisation and work for the Duchess was in founding four hospitals in Woburn and in the grounds of

Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, ...

. The principal establishment was the Abbey Hospital that she financed and built in 1914, and where she worked as a nurse and radiographer through to the 1930s. She chartered, and later bought the yacht ''Sapphire'' from a Mr. A. L. Barbour and later bought her from him, using her in ornithological voyages to the North of Scotland and Scandinavia. The Duchess was a collector and watcher of birds, and took an interest in bird migration. Between 1909 and 1914 she spent much time on

Fair Isle Fair Isle ( ; ), sometimes Fairisle, is the southernmost Shetland island, situated roughly from the Shetland Mainland and about from North Ronaldsay (the most northerly island of Orkney). The entire archipelago lies off the northernmost coa ...

, often in the company of

William Eagle Clarke Dr William Eagle Clarke ISO FLS FRSE PBOU Doctor of Laws, LL.D. (16 March 1853 – 10 May 1938) was a British ornithologist. Life Clarke was born in Leeds where his father William Clarke was a solicitor and educated at the Grammar School and at ...

. Her journal, ''A Bird-watcher's Diary'', was privately published in 1938 after her death. She was a member of the Women's Tax Resistance League, a group associated with the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...

that used

tax resistance Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax, or to government policy, or as opposition to taxation in itself. Tax resistance is a form of direct action and, if in violation of the ta ...

to protest the disenfranchisement of women during the British

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

movement.

Aviation

Late in life at age 63, the Duchess became interested in aviation, that she claimed gave her some relief from her constant

tinnitus Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sound when no corresponding external sound is present and other people cannot hear it. Nearly everyone experiences faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely ...

, although she eventually became totally deaf. In 1928 a large country house, Wispers, near

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother (Western), River Rother, inland from the English Channel and north of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first reco ...

in West Sussex, and its estate were bought by the Bedford Estate for Russell. She used Wispers as a weekend retreat: she was a keen

and flew her plane from the family seat at

to Wispers, where she had a hangar constructed in the 1930s at the same time as the large eastern wing was being added to the house. She used a nearby field as a landing strip. On 2 August 1929, she departed on a record-breaking flight of 10,000 miles from

Lympne Airport Lympne Airport was a military and later civil airfield , at Lympne, Kent, United Kingdom, which operated from 1916 to 1984. The airfield was built out of necessity in the First World War. During the World War I, First World War RFC Lympne was ...

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

(then in India) and return to

Croydon Airport Croydon Airport was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. It opened in 1920, located near Croydon, then part of Surrey. Built in a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style, it was developed as Britain's main airp ...

in eight days. She was accompanied in her single-engined Fokker F.VII (G-EBTS, ''Princess Xenia'', which she renamed "The Spider" for its tenacity) by her personal pilot Captain C. D. Barnard and mechanic Robert (Bob) Little. On 8 April 1930 she made her first solo flight, in her DH.60G Moth (G-AAAO). On 10 April 1930 she embarked on a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, in "The Spider", flying 9,000 miles in 91 hours and twenty minutes over 10 days, again with Barnard and Little. In 1934 and again in 1935, with co-pilot F/Lt R. C. Preston in

de Havilland Puss Moth The de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth is a British three-seater high-wing monoplane aeroplane designed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company between 1929 and 1933. It flew at a speed approaching 124 mph (200 km/h), making it ...

G-ABOC, the Duchess made extensive flights from Britain to the Western Sahara and Northern Nigeria.

Honours

In January 1918, the duchess was awarded the

Royal Red Cross The Royal Red Cross (RRC) is a military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth for exceptional services in military nursing. It was created in 1883, and the first two awards were to Florence Nightingale and Jane Cecilia Deeb ...

in the second Associate grade, for her services to wartime nursing at Woburn Auxiliary Hospital. She was appointed a

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1928. She was also Dame of Grace of the Order of Saint John (DGStJ) and a Fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

of the

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

(FLS).

Eponym

The Lesser Striped Shrew ''Sorex bedfordiae'' is named after her. It is found in Asia, from central China to Nepal, Assam and Myanmar. A

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

from Siberia, ''Alces bedfordiae'', was named after her in 1902, but the species is not currently considered valid.

Death

The duchess died aged 71, in March 1937, three months before

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...

's death, after leaving Woburn Abbey in a DH.60GIII Moth Major (G-ACUR), that crashed into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

off

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

; her body was never recovered.''Flight'' 1 April 1937
flightglobal.com

Early and personal life

Work and activism

Aviation

Honours

Eponym

Death

See also

Notes

References

Further reading