FRANCIS RUSSELL, 9TH DUKE OF BEDFORD

'Francis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford' KG (October 16 1819 – January 14 1891) was an English politician and agriculturalist.

Contents

Life

Family

Bibliography

Life

The son of Major-General Lord George William Russell and Lady William Russell, and the grandson of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell gained the rank of officer in 1838 in the service of the Scots Fusilier Guards. He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire between 1847 and 1872 when he succeeded to his dukedom 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 December 1, 1880, he was made a Knight of the Garter.
He died in 1891, aged 71 at 81 Eaton Square, London, by shooting himself as a result of insanity, while suffering from pneumonia. After being cremated, his ashes were buried at Chenies, Buckinghamshire.

Family

He married Lady Elizabeth Sackville-West, daughter of George West, 5th Earl de la Warr, on 18 January 1844. They had four children:

★ George William Francis Sackville Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford (1852–1893)

★ Lady Ella Monica Sackville Russell (1854–1936), died unmarried.

★ Lady Ermyntrude Sackville Russell (1856–1927), married Edward Malet, 4th Bt.

★ Herbrand Arthur Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford (1858–1940)

Bibliography

★ Lloyd, E.M. & Seccombe, T. "Russell, Lord George William (1790–1846)", rev. James Falkner, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 [1], (subscription required)