2nd. LIEUTENANT JOHN WILLIAM BINFIELD RUSSELL
Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment.
John was the eldest son of William and Lucy Binfield Russell. He was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Bradpole in October 1896.
When John was four years old, the family, including his siblings Frederick (3) and baby, Mary, lived at 82 Bradpole Road.
John’s father, William was a school master and while at Bradpole Road he tutored private students. A governess, ‘Elsie’, also lived in the house and she may have worked alongside William or have been employed as a governess to John and Frederick.
In 1908, aged 12, John became a boarder at Oundle School in Northamptonshire and around the same time, the rest of the family moved to Newquay where William was appointed head of a small preparatory School – St. Andrews. At Oundle, John was recognised as a keen rugby player and captained the second XV. He also excelled academically, winning a Senior Classical scholarship to University College, Oxford. He left school in December 1914 but did not take up his academic career. At the beginning of 1915 (Aged 18) he was given a commission in the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment and was posted to France where he served for just over a year before his death on July 7th 1916. He fell leading his company in an attack on a German trench south of Mametz Wood just one week into the battle of the Somme.
A brother officer wrote of him: “Russell…had that extraordinary power of winning affection and loyalty from all ranks, which makes his loss an irreparable one to the regiment, as well as a personal sorrow to me and his many friends.”
John is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Département de Somme and is remembered at the family plot in Bridport Cemetery