Constituency : Gloucester 1900-10, South Shields 1910-16
Russell took Gloucester from the Liberal Unionists after Charles Monk stood down. Russell was generally sympathetic to labour causes and had the backing of the national railwaymen's leader.
Russell's mother was a shipping heiress. He was educated privately and went into the family business. He founded the business R and J H Rea in Liverpool in the 1890s which rapidly expanded under Russell as senior director. He was deputy chairman of the Taff Vale Railway.
He stood for the Liberals in the Liverpool Exchange by-election in 1897, narrowly losing out to the Liberal Unionist Charles McArthur.
Rusell was a member of the radical Rainbow Circle.
Russell's maiden speech was in protest against a tax on coal exports in 1901.
In January 1910 Russell lost his seat to the Conservatives but returned at a by-election in South Shields that October. He was unopposed.
In 1912 Russell introduced an Ancient Monuments Protection Bill at the prompting of the National Trust. He also chaired a committee on rail prices.
Russell was made a whip in 1915 but soon suffered a decline in his health. He made a lengthy intervention on war finance in 1915 having been put in charge of collating the Census of Production.
He died of heart failure in 1916 aged 69.
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