Nicholas Lyulph Russell, 6th Earl Russell (12 September 196817 August 2014), styled Viscount Amberley between 1987 and 2004, was the elder son of

Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, (15 April 1937 – 14 October 2004), was a British historian and politician. As an academic historian, he worked primarily on 17th-century English history, having extensively written and l ...

and Elizabeth Russell (formerly Elizabeth Sanders). He succeeded to the Earldom of Russell on his father's death on 14 October 2004. Like his grandfather,

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

, he was an active member of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...

, from his teenage years until his death. By the

House of Lords Act 1999 The House of Lords Act 1999 (c. 34) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given royal assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords ...

, all but 92

hereditary peers The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary ...

were removed from the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

– the abolition of which Russell advocated so he did not sit in the Lords.

Early life

Born in

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a suburb of southwest London, England, southwest of Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,189 in 2011 which includes the electoral wards of Abbey, Wimb ...

, on 12 September 1968, Russell was educated at

William Ellis School William Ellis School is a voluntary aided secondary school and sixth form for boys located in Gospel Oak, London, England. Admissions The School is located near Hampstead Heath in north London. It is situated just east of Parliament Hill an ...

in North London and studied politics at the University of Lancaster.

Career

Russell was the

disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocates, around ...

campaigner for the Labour Party and was campaigns officer for the Royal National Institute of the Blind as well as co-chairman and later sole chairman of DANDA:Developmental Adult Neurodiversity Association, an entirely user-led and user-run organisation, two of whose members and trustee-directors successfully asked the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) to set up a Neurodiversity Group, which was succeeded by the DRC Neurodiversity and Autism Action Group (NAAG), the only systematic human rights examination of Neurodivergent Rights in the world to date by an official human rights body of national or international standing, reporting in 2007. He also trained the Metropolitan Police Service. He was a regional board member of the

Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, leg ...

and was active in the

Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party () is a centre-left List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. The party currently has an electoral pact with the Labour Party. E ...

, as well as SERA and Transport 2000. He was also a longstanding national executive member of the

Socialist Educational Association The Socialist Educational Association (SEA) is a socialist educational organisation in the United Kingdom. It is affiliated to the Labour Party as a socialist society. It assists in the development of and monitors educational policies of the ...

. He was actively involved in Disability Labour and was a former chairman of the group. He was Disability Labour's first representative on the Labour Party's

National Policy Forum The National Policy Forum (NPF) of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the Party, set up by Leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process. A Provisional National Policy Forum had been established by Bla ...

, the National Executive Committee's equalities sub-committee and the Socialist Societies executive. On 7 May 2010, Russell was elected as Labour

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

for the

Cann Hall Cann Hall is a former civil parish in the south of Leytonstone in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is north of Stratford and Forest Gate, east of Leyton, and west of Wanstead Flats, the southernmost tip of Epping Forest. History The ...

ward of Waltham Forest London Borough Council, a position he held for a four-year term until May 2014.

Personal life and death

He lived with his fiancée Georgina Farrer in

Leytonstone Leytonstone ( ) is an area in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, Stratford to the south-west, Leyton to the west, and Walthamstow to the nor ...

, until his sudden death from a presumed heart attack on 17 August 2014, aged 45. A post mortem later confirmed the cause of death to have been due to

thrombosis Thrombosis () is the formation of a Thrombus, blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thrombocytes) and fib ...

Titles

* The Hon. Nicholas Russell (1968–1987) * Viscount Amberley (1987–2004) * ''The Rt. Hon.'' The Earl Russell (2004–2010) * Councillor ''The Rt. Hon.'' The Earl Russell (2010–2014) * ''The Rt. Hon.'' The Earl Russell (2014)

References

External links

Cann Hall election results 2010

Declaration of interests, including memberships of CND bodies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Nicholas Russell, 6th Earl 1968 births 2014 deaths Co-operative Party politicians Councillors in the London Borough of Waltham Forest Deaths from thrombosis Earls Russell Labour Party (UK) councillors People educated at William Ellis School People from Leytonstone People from Wimbledon, London

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...