Flora Russell
{{Short description|English noblewoman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Flora Russell
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1869|09|28|df=yes}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|1967|08|23|1869|09|28|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| father = Lord Arthur Russell
| relatives = Claud Russell (brother)
Gilbert Russell (brother)
Conrad Russell (brother)
George Russell (grandfather)
Elizabeth Rawdon (grandmother)
Georgina Whitfield (grandmother)
| spouse =
| children =
}}
Flora Magdalen Isabel Russell (28 September 1869{{spaced ndash}}23 August 1967) was an English noblewoman, childhood friend of Gertrude Bell.
Biography
Flora Magdalen Isabel Russell was born on 28 September 1869, the daughter of Lord Arthur Russell and Lady Laura de Peyronnet, daughter of Paul Louis Jules, Vicomte de Peyronnet. Her siblings were: Harold John Hastings Russell; Sir Claud Frederick William Russell; Caroline Diana Rosalind Russell; Maj Gilbert Byng Alwyne Russell; and Conrad George Edward Russell. She was the niece of the 9th Duke of Bedford. Harold John Hastings Russell's daughter, Elizabeth Russell married Richard Plunket Greene and their son, Alexander Plunket Greene, who married Mary Quant, was Flora Russell's favourite grandnephew.
The Russells at the time of Flora's youth were the envy of London. They lived at 2 Audley Square, Mayfair, and their house were frequented by well-known figures like Leslie Stephen and his daughters, Virginia and Vanessa; Mrs Humphry Ward; Henry James and John Singer Sargent; Vera Brittain.{{cite book|last1=Wallach|first1=Janet|title=Desert Queen|date=2010|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|page=66|isbn=9780307744364 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOLMYBGXRfUC&pg=PT66|accessdate=14 January 2018}}{{cite web|title=History|url=https://www.universitywomensclub.com/the-club/history-heritage/|website=University Women's Club|accessdate=14 January 2018}}
She was briefly engaged to George Stephen, older stepbrother of Virginia Woolf. Hearing the news, Woolf sent a congratulations telegram: "She is an angel" and signed with her family nickname "Goat". The telegram delivered was "She is an aged Goat." George Stephen later commented that he thought Woolf was referring to Flora Russell's reluctance to ally herself with the Stephen family. Woolf denied and said the mistake was due to her handwriting. At the end George Stephen married Lady Margaret Herbert.{{cite book|last1=Zamith|first1=Maria Cândida|title=Virginia Woolf: Three Centenary Celebrations|date=2007|publisher=Universidade do Porto|page=100|isbn=9789728932237 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_j4ln5cEI8C&pg=PA100|accessdate=14 January 2018}}
She was a watercolour painter and her portrait of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), traveller, spy and archaeologist, is at the National Portrait Gallery.{{cite web|title=Gertrude Bell|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00488/Gertrude-Bell?LinkID=mp07505&role=art&rNo=0|website=National Portrait Gallery|accessdate=14 January 2018}} Bell was a childhood friend and Russell and Bell, together with Russell's sister, Diana, worked together at the Wounded & Missing Enquiry Department (W&MED) office in France. The W&MED, founded by Lord Robert Cecil, was offering tracking services for the men involved in the World War I: killed soldiers whose name wasn't yet official; wounded soldiers in hospital unable to communicate with home; and prisoners. Flora and Diana would take turns so that at least one of them was always in the office.{{cite book|last1=Howell|first1=Georgina|title=Daughter of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell|date=2012|publisher=Pan Macmillan|page=238|isbn=9780330476034 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8cHHK-kiJGMC&pg=PA238|accessdate=14 January 2018}}
Having many relatives in the diplomatic corps around the world, while she was travelling she was a guest of the British embassies instead of lodging at hotels.{{cite book|last1=Quant|first1=Mary|title=Mary Quant My Autobiography: My Autobiography|date=2012|publisher=Hachette UK|page=18|isbn=9780755363384 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNPHZh7mDkAC&pg=PT18|accessdate=14 January 2018}}
In 1921 Flora Russell sold for £22,500 (£{{formatnum:{{inflation|UK|22500|1921}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}} sterling) the townhouse at 2 Audley Square she had inherited from her father to the University Women's Club, which is still housed there. In 1928 she moved to the country, and built "South Down". The house was later bought by her great-nephew, Alexander Plunket Greene, the husband of Mary Quant.
In 1965 Gimson and Eustace recorded Flora Russell, at the time 96 years old, whose speech they regard as a "good example of a certain kind of Victorian English".{{cite book|last1=Hogg|first1=Richard M.|last2=Blake|first2=Norman Francis|last3=Burchfield|first3=Robert|last4=Lass|first4=Roger|last5=Romaine|first5=Suzanne|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language|date=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=259|isbn=9780521264785 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=419yI8SGcnEC&pg=PA259|accessdate=14 January 2018}}
Flora Russell died on 23 August 1967, Diana Russell on 31 October 1971, both sisters at 97 years old, unmarried.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003
References
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Category:19th-century English women
Category:19th-century English people
Category:20th-century English women
Category:20th-century English people
Category:British women in World War I