John Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

John Ian Robert Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford (24 May 1917 – 25 October 2002) was a British peer and writer, the son of Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford.

The 13th Duke was known in his youth as Ian, with the courtesy title Lord Howland. In 1940 his father succeeded to the dukedom and Lord Howland acquired the courtesy title Marquess of Tavistock.

On 6 April 1939 he married Clare Gwendolyn (Bridgman) Hollway. She died of a drug overdose in 1945. They had two children:

• Henry Robin Ian Russell, 14th Duke of Bedford (1940–2003)
• Lord Rudolf Russell (b. 7 March 1944)

On 13 February 1947, Lord Tavistock married his second wife, Lydia Lyle (born 17 October 1917 - died 25 July 2006), daughter of John Yarde-Buller, 3rd Baron Churston and the former Denise Orme, and widow of Capt. Ian Archibald de Hoghton Lyle (1909-1942), heir to a baronetcy; she had two children by her first marriage. They were divorced in 1960. They had one child:

• Lord Francis Hastings Russell (b. 27 February 1950)

The Duke of Bedford married, thirdly, Nicole (Schneider) Milinaire (b. 29 June 1920) on 4 September 1960. The Duke had no children by this union.

[edit] Career

Russell started his career as a rent collector in 1938, in Stepney. He then joined the Coldstream Guards in 1939 and fought in the Second World War between 1939 and 1940, but quit the army after being invalided.

He then turned to journalism and was a reporter for the Daily Express in 1940. He wrote:

• A Silver-Plated Spoon (published in 1959)
• The Duke of Bedford's Book of Snobs (published in 1965)
• The Flying Duchess (published in 1968)
• How to Run a Stately Home (published in 1971)

Peerage of England
Preceded by Hastings Russell	Duke of Bedford 1953–2002	Succeeded by Robin Russell