IST BARON British diplomatist and ambassador, was born in Florence on Feb. 20, 1829, the son of Maj.-Gen. Lord George William Russell. His education, like that of his two brothers—Hastings, who became eventually 9th duke of Bedford, and Arthur, who sat for a generation in the House of Commons as member for Tavistock—was carried on entirely at home, under the general direction of his mother, whose beauty was celebrated by Byron in Beppo. Lady William Russell was as strong-willed as she was beautiful,and certainly deserved to be described as she was by Disraeli, who said in conversation : "I think she is the most fortunate woman in England, for she has the three nicest sons." In March 1849 Odo was appointed by Lord Malmesbury attaché at Vienna. He was employed successively in the foreign office in London, in Paris, Constantinople and Florence. In 1858 he was sent to reside in Rome, where he remained for 12 years, till Aug. 187o. During all that period he was the real though unofficial rep resentative of England at the Vatican, and his consummate tact enabled him to do more than an ordinary man could have done in a stronger position. Although he sympathized with those who laboured to prevent the extreme partisans of papal infallibility from having everything their own way, yet he made it clear to his own government that all efforts were useless, and seems to have had no illusions as to the result of the debate. In 1868 Odo Russell married Lady Emily Theresa Villiers, the daughter of Lord Clar endon. In 187o he was appointed assistant under-secretary at the foreign office, and in Nov. of that year was sent on a special mission to the headquarters of the German army, where he re mained till 1871.
In 187o Russia had taken advantage of the collapse of France and of her own cordial relations with Prussia to denounce the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris of 1856. Russell, in an interview with Bismarck, pointed out that unless Russia withdrew from an attitude which involved the destruction of a treaty sol emnly guaranteed by the powers, Great Britain would be forced to go to war "with or without allies." This strong attitude was effective, and the question was ultimately settled by the confer ence which met in London in 1871. Though the result was to score a distinct diplomatic success for the Liberal government, the bellicose method employed threatened to create trouble for the ministry in parliament. On Feb. 16, 1871, accordingly, Gladstone, in answer to a question, made an enigmatical statement on the subject which was interpreted as an attack on Russell. A little later in the same year, however, he was made ambassador at Berlin.
Russell remained at Berlin, with only brief intervals of absence, from Oct. 16, 1871, till his death at Potsdam on Aug. 25, 1884. He was third plenipotentiary at the Berlin congress. He was raised to the peerage in At the conference about the Greek fron tier, which followed the congress of Berlin, he was the only British representative. During all this long sojourn in the Prussian capital he did everything that he could to bring about close and friendly relations between Great Britain and Germany.
He was succeeded as znd baron by his son, ARTHUR OLIVER VILLIERS RUSSELL (1869-1936), who was private secretary to Mr. Chamberlain, 1895-97, and governor of Madras, 1899-1906. In 1904 he acted temporarily as Viceroy of India. He served in France throughout the World War. The legitimacy of his grand son was impugned by the complex proceedings popularly known as the "Russell baby case," which, commenced in 1921, was ended in the infant's favour in 1924.