Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell

The Earl Russell
Lord Russell at the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Brighton, September 2003
Member of the House of Lords
as a hereditary peer
16 December 1987 – 11 November 1999
Preceded byThe 4th Earl Russell
Succeeded bySeat abolished
as an elected hereditary peer
11 November 1999 – 14 October 2004
Election1999
Preceded bySeat established
Succeeded byThe 10th Earl of Glasgow
Personal details
Born(1937-04-15)15 April 1937
Harting, West Sussex, England, UK
Died14 October 2004(2004-10-14) (aged 67)
London (Park Royal), England, UK
Political partyLiberal Democrats (1988–2004)
Other political
affiliations
Labour
Liberal
Spouse
Elizabeth Sanders
(m. 1962; died 2003)
Parent(s)Bertrand Russell
Patricia Spence
Alma materOxford University
OccupationPolitician, historian
ProfessionAcademic

Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, FBA (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 also a great-grandson of the 19th-century British Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell.[1] He succeeded to the earldom on the death of his half-brother, John Russell, on 16 December 1987. Both sons were named after their father's great friend Joseph Conrad, who was also the 4th Earl's godfather.

Educated at Eton (King's Scholar) and Merton College, Oxford,[2] Conrad Russell was an academic historian working on 17th-century British history, having extensively written and lectured on parliamentary struggles of the period. Russell was also a passionate advocate of liberalism, from a long family line of distinguished liberals.

After his death from complications of emphysema, Russell was succeeded as Earl by his elder son, Nicholas, who died in 2014 and was succeeded as Earl by his brother, John, who is also a politician.

  1. ^ Andrew Phillips. "Obituary: Earl Russell | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  2. ^ Levens, R. G. C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 471.