Richard John Russell
Encyclopedia
Richard John Russell was a British dental surgeon and Liberal
later Liberal National
politician.
. He was educated at St Ann's, Birkenhead and at Liverpool University. He obtained his Licentiate in Dental Surgery and qualified in the Royal College of Surgeons of England
He married Ellen Atkinson of Wensleydale
in Yorkshire
and they had two daughters.
, including with Sir Archibald Salvidge, the Conservative
political organiser, the Merseyside Co-ordination Committee and the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee. He also served as a Justice of the Peace
. Russell was for many years an Alderman
of Birkenhead Town Council.
at the general elections of 1923
and 1924
. There was no Labour Party
tradition in the constituency, the radical interest such as it was in this predominantly rural area being vested in the Liberals. In a straight fight in 1923 Russell lost by only 196 votes to the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament
(MP) Harry Barnston
. He continued to nurse the constituency between the 1923 and 1924 elections but suffered from being an outsider from an urban area compared with the sitting MP who had strong territorial ties with the constituency
He had a straight fight against the Conservative candidate Lieutenant-Colonel R G Fenwick-Palmer. In this largely rural constituency, agricultural issues dominated the debates and campaigns with the Liberals promoting the Lloyd George
land policy and the Conservatives denouncing it. Russell turned a Tory majority of 1,669 at the previous general election into a Liberal majority of 1,292. Eddisbury was one of a series of Liberal by-election successes at this time; Holland with Boston
was won the day after Eddisbury and according to two important psephologists the Liberals were doing undeniably well in by-election contests in this Parliament.
virtues of efficiency, economy and retrenchment and was in favour of temperance and reduction of licensed drinking hours. One historian has described Russell as "....on the surface, the archetypal Liberal of the Gladstonian tradition." He tended to vote with the Conservatives rather than Labour when the Liberal Parliamentary Party votes were split during the period of the second Labour government
(1929–1931) on education and taxation. He was a Methodist lay preacher and strongly disapproved of sweepstakes and betting, working in the House of Commons for further restrictive legislation including proposing a Private Member's Bill
to make illegal the Football pools
and other forms of pool or parimutuel betting
. He also strongly opposed secularisation of Sundays. In 1932 he played a leading role in opposing a Bill to allow cinemas to open on Sundays, describing the commercialisation of the Sabbath as an "intolerable desecration".
By 1931 it was becoming clear that the ties of party and whip were loosening for Russell in Parliament and that he was taking up a much more independent approach.
Ramsay MacDonald
supported by a small number of National Labour MPs and initially backed by the Conservative and Liberal parties. However most Liberals had concerns about supporting the National coalition over the long run because of the government's commitment to protectionism and tariffs in opposition to the traditional Liberal policy of Free Trade
. Despite these worries, the Liberal Party led by Sir Herbert Samuel
agreed to go into the 1931 general election
supporting the government. As a result Russell found himself the representative of the coalition at the election, Conservative opposition to him being withdrawn. and he was returned unopposed.
As the initial crisis passed, the Liberal Party became increasingly anxious about the government's stance on Free Trade and worried about the predominance of the Conservatives in the coalition. However a group of Liberal MPs led by Sir John Simon who were concerned to ensure the National Government had a wide cross-party base formed the Liberal National Party to give more open support to MacDonald's administration. Given the background of Russell's opposition to the Labour government, his natural conservatism and his dependence upon Conservative support in his constituency it is not surprising that Russell was one of the group of 22 Simonite MPs who met in 'secret conclave' on the evening of 5 October 1931. The meeting resolved to form itself into a body to give firm support to the prime minister as the head of a national government and for the purpose of fighting a general election. Sir John Simon wrote to the Prime Minister that night to give him the news and the decision was made to call the group Liberal Nationals.
At the 1935 general election
the Eddisbury Tories again accepted Russell as the representative of the National Government and stood aside in his favour. There was talk of his being opposed by an Independent Liberal, William Gibson a Cheshire
County Councillor and a former Chairman of Eddisbury Liberal Association but Gibson also withdrew and Russell again found himself returned to Parliament unopposed. With a General Election expected in the Autumn of 1939, the local Liberals met at Chester and decided to field a candidate against him. However, the election never took place.
by John Eric Loverseed
, the son of former Liberal MP John Frederick Loverseed
(1881–1928).
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
later Liberal National
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)
The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968...
politician.
Family and education
Russell was the son of R J Russell of BirkenheadBirkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
. He was educated at St Ann's, Birkenhead and at Liverpool University. He obtained his Licentiate in Dental Surgery and qualified in the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
He married Ellen Atkinson of Wensleydale
Wensleydale
Wensleydale is the valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England.Wensleydale lies in the Yorkshire Dales National Park – one of only a few valleys in the Dales not currently named after its principal river , but the older name, "Yoredale", can still be seen...
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and they had two daughters.
Public career
Russell was the chairman of many important committees on MerseysideMerseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
, including with Sir Archibald Salvidge, the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
political organiser, the Merseyside Co-ordination Committee and the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee. He also served as a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. Russell was for many years an Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
of Birkenhead Town Council.
1923-1924
Russell contested EddisburyEddisbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Eddisbury is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election.- Boundaries :...
at the general elections of 1923
United Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
and 1924
United Kingdom general election, 1924
- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...
. There was no Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
tradition in the constituency, the radical interest such as it was in this predominantly rural area being vested in the Liberals. In a straight fight in 1923 Russell lost by only 196 votes to the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) Harry Barnston
Harry Barnston
Sir Harry Barnston, 1st Baronet MA JP DL was a British Conservative politician.The son of Major William Barnston of Crewe Hill, and Mary Emma King, he was educated privately and at Christ Church, Oxford....
. He continued to nurse the constituency between the 1923 and 1924 elections but suffered from being an outsider from an urban area compared with the sitting MP who had strong territorial ties with the constituency
By-election candidate
In early 1929 an opportunity arose for Russell with the death of Sir Harry Barnston. Russell was re-adopted as Liberal candidate for the resulting by-election in EddisburyEddisbury by-election, 1929
The Eddisbury by-election, 1929 was a by-election held on 20 March 1929 for the British House of Commons constituency of Eddisbury.The election was triggered by the death of the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament , Harry Barnston and was a straight fight between the Conservative,...
He had a straight fight against the Conservative candidate Lieutenant-Colonel R G Fenwick-Palmer. In this largely rural constituency, agricultural issues dominated the debates and campaigns with the Liberals promoting the Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
land policy and the Conservatives denouncing it. Russell turned a Tory majority of 1,669 at the previous general election into a Liberal majority of 1,292. Eddisbury was one of a series of Liberal by-election successes at this time; Holland with Boston
Holland with Boston by-election, 1929
The Holland with Boston by-election, 1929 was a by-election held on 21st March 1929 for the British House of Commons constituency of Holland with Boston in Lincolnshire....
was won the day after Eddisbury and according to two important psephologists the Liberals were doing undeniably well in by-election contests in this Parliament.
Rural MP
Unsurprisingly for the representative of a rural area, in his subsequent parliamentary career, Russell often took a strong interest in countryside matters, the need to support farming as an industry and the importance of cheap food. In 1933 Russell sat on the House of Commons committee on surplus foodstuffs which had the aim of making surplus foods available to the unemployed at wholesale prices.Political character and stance
In many aspects of his politics, Russell tended to be on the conservative wing of his party. He spoke in parliament of the GladstonianGladstonian Liberalism
Gladstonian Liberalism is a political doctrine named after the British Victorian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstonian Liberalism consisted of limited government expenditure and low taxation whilst making sure government had balanced budgets...
virtues of efficiency, economy and retrenchment and was in favour of temperance and reduction of licensed drinking hours. One historian has described Russell as "....on the surface, the archetypal Liberal of the Gladstonian tradition." He tended to vote with the Conservatives rather than Labour when the Liberal Parliamentary Party votes were split during the period of the second Labour government
Labour Government 1929-1931
The Second Labour Government was formed by Ramsay MacDonald on his second appointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 5 June 1929. As the name suggests it was the second occasion on which the Labour Party had formed a government; the First Labour Government held office during 1924.The...
(1929–1931) on education and taxation. He was a Methodist lay preacher and strongly disapproved of sweepstakes and betting, working in the House of Commons for further restrictive legislation including proposing a Private Member's Bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
to make illegal the Football pools
Football pools
A football pool, often collectively referred to as "the pools", is a betting pool based on predicting the outcome of top-level association football matches set to take place in the coming week. The pools are typically cheap to enter, with the potential to win huge money. Entries were traditionally...
and other forms of pool or parimutuel betting
Parimutuel betting
Parimutuel betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vig" is removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets...
. He also strongly opposed secularisation of Sundays. In 1932 he played a leading role in opposing a Bill to allow cinemas to open on Sundays, describing the commercialisation of the Sabbath as an "intolerable desecration".
By 1931 it was becoming clear that the ties of party and whip were loosening for Russell in Parliament and that he was taking up a much more independent approach.
Liberal National
In 1931 an economic crisis led to the formation of a National Government led by prime ministerPrime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
supported by a small number of National Labour MPs and initially backed by the Conservative and Liberal parties. However most Liberals had concerns about supporting the National coalition over the long run because of the government's commitment to protectionism and tariffs in opposition to the traditional Liberal policy of Free Trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
. Despite these worries, the Liberal Party led by Sir Herbert Samuel
Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Early years:...
agreed to go into the 1931 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...
supporting the government. As a result Russell found himself the representative of the coalition at the election, Conservative opposition to him being withdrawn. and he was returned unopposed.
As the initial crisis passed, the Liberal Party became increasingly anxious about the government's stance on Free Trade and worried about the predominance of the Conservatives in the coalition. However a group of Liberal MPs led by Sir John Simon who were concerned to ensure the National Government had a wide cross-party base formed the Liberal National Party to give more open support to MacDonald's administration. Given the background of Russell's opposition to the Labour government, his natural conservatism and his dependence upon Conservative support in his constituency it is not surprising that Russell was one of the group of 22 Simonite MPs who met in 'secret conclave' on the evening of 5 October 1931. The meeting resolved to form itself into a body to give firm support to the prime minister as the head of a national government and for the purpose of fighting a general election. Sir John Simon wrote to the Prime Minister that night to give him the news and the decision was made to call the group Liberal Nationals.
At the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
the Eddisbury Tories again accepted Russell as the representative of the National Government and stood aside in his favour. There was talk of his being opposed by an Independent Liberal, William Gibson a Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
County Councillor and a former Chairman of Eddisbury Liberal Association but Gibson also withdrew and Russell again found himself returned to Parliament unopposed. With a General Election expected in the Autumn of 1939, the local Liberals met at Chester and decided to field a candidate against him. However, the election never took place.
Eddisbury by-election, 1943
At the by-election caused by Russell's death the seat was gained for the Common Wealth PartyCommon Wealth Party
The Common Wealth Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. Thereafter, it continued in being, essentially as a pressure group, until 1993.-The war years:...
by John Eric Loverseed
John Eric Loverseed
John Eric Loverseed AFC was a pilot who flew with the Royal Air Force in 1930s, with Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, and with the RAF again the Battle of Britain, before being elected as a wartime Member of Parliament MP for the Common Wealth Party...
, the son of former Liberal MP John Frederick Loverseed
John Frederick Loverseed
John Frederick Loverseed was a British Liberal politician.-Family and Education:Loverseed was the son of a Nottinghamshire builder and contractor. He was educated at Southwell Grammar School and Gosberton Hall. In 1910 he married Katherine Thurman of Grantham, Lincolnshire. They had one son...
(1881–1928).