Edward John Russell, 1872-1965

Abstract

Edward John Russell was born on 31 October 1872 at Frampton-onSevern into a large but poor family. His father Edward Thomas Russell was at first a schoolmaster and later became a Unitarian Minister. His mother came from a west country family and her father Captain Samuel Hallet owned a wharf at Lambeth and ran a coastal shipping service. The family in fact had no scientific or agricultural background, but John Russell’s father was a man of wide culture, which included physics, chemistry and biology. He read widely in these subjects, made experiments in his home and gave lectures in popular science. So great was his enthusiasm that he gave up a teaching post he later held in Sheffield on obtaining a small bursary to attend a week’s course under T. H. Huxley. The young Russell was undoubtedly influenced by his father’s interests and help; the schools available to him as a child did not, however, teach scientific subjects. In 1885 the family moved to Birmingham where he went to the recently opened Technical School. Here he was taught mathematics and also some chemistry, in which subject he became so keenly interested that he decided to take it up as a career. Unfortunately, after only two years the family moved to London and at the age of 14, John Russell was obliged to give up his school education and find work. In his book The land called me he recalls that ‘thinking that chemistry was practised in chemists’ shops I decided to try to get into one, and save up money to go to college’. He obtained employment at a homoeopathic chemist in Threadneedle Street, at a salary of 7 shillings a week, but to his intense disappointment, he soon found that no chemistry was done at the shop, nor did any of the assistants have any knowledge of it. His duties were to label bottles of pills and to run errands.