Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford

The Duke of Bedford in the House of Lords, by Carlo Pellegrini, 1874.

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

[edit] 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.

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

Lloyd, E.M. & Seccombe, T. "Russell, Lord George William (1790–1846)", rev. James Falkner, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1], <accessed 28 Feb 2006> (subscription required)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Viscount Alford Lord Charles James Fox Russell	Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire with Viscount Alford 1847-1851 Sir Richard Gilpin, Bt 1851-1872 1847–1872	Succeeded by Sir Richard Gilpin, Bt Francis Bassett
Honorary Titles
Preceded by The Earl of Sandwich	Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire 1884–1891	Succeeded by The Earl of Sandwich
Peerage of England
Preceded by William Russell	Duke of Bedford 1872–1891	Succeeded by George Russell