Francis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of BedfordKG was an English politician and agriculturalist.
Background
The son of Major-General Lord George William Russell and Lady William Russell, and the grandson of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was born in Curzon Street, London, and commissioned into the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1838, retiring in 1844.
Career
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 1 December 1880, he was made a Knight of the Garter.
From 1884 until his death he was Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire.
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 at Woking Crematorium, his ashes were buried at the ‘Bedford Chapel’ of Saint Michael’s Church in Chenies, Buckinghamshire.
They had four children:
George William Francis Sackville Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford (1852–1893)
Lady Ella Monica Sackville Russell (1854–1936), died unmarried. Lady Ermyntrude Sackville Russell (1856–1927), married Edward Malet, 4th Baronet
Herbrand Arthur Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford (1858–1940).
Membership
15th United Kingdom Parliament. 16th United Kingdom Parliament. 17th United Kingdom Parliament.
18th United Kingdom Parliament.
19th United Kingdom Parliament. 20th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire from 1847 until 1872, when he succeeded to his dukedom and took his place in the House of Lords.