| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Earl Russell | |
| Office4: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start4: | 3 February 1970 |
| Term End4: | 16 December 1987 Hereditary Peerage |
| Predecessor4: | The 3rd Earl Russell |
| Successor4: | The 5th Earl Russell |
| Birth Date: | 16 November 1921 |
| Death Date: | 16 December 1987 (aged 66) |
| Education: | Dartington Hall School University of California Harvard University |
| Spouse: | Doniphan Lindsay |
| Children: | 3 |
| Parents: | Bertrand Russell Dora Black |
John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell (16 November 1921 – 16 December 1987), styled Viscount Amberley from 1931 to 1970, was the eldest son of the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (the 3rd Earl) and his second wife, Dora Black. His middle name was a tribute to the writer Joseph Conrad, whom his father had long admired.[1] He was the great-grandson of the 19th-century British Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell. He succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father on 2 February 1970.
John Russell was educated at the progressive Dartington Hall School, the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard University. Upon leaving Harvard in 1943 he returned to Britain and enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve. In the Reserve, he learned the Japanese language.[2]
Russell had a distinguished early career, working for the FAO among other organisations, but in later life he was diagnosed as schizophrenic.[3] This made him the only person in the United Kingdom to be denied the vote on two counts, first, for being a peer and, second, for being insane. He delivered a speech in the House of Lords on 18 July 1978 that was considered so outlandish that to this day it was claimed to be the only speech unrecorded by Hansard, although it is included in the online version[4] while lacking the final section that he had written but failed to read aloud after being interrupted.[5] [6]
He was married on 28 August 1946 to Susan Doniphan Lindsay, daughter of the poet Vachel Lindsay. They were divorced in 1955. They had three daughters:, Lady Sarah Elizabeth Russell, and Lady Lucy Catherine Russell (21 July 1948 – 11 April 1975). Neither Sarah nor Lucy married or bore children; Felicity had one daughter, Rowan. Like their father and mother, the three daughters had mental illnesses. Lucy, who was Bertrand Russell's favourite grandchild, died from self-immolation, at the age of 26, in the forecourt of a church near Penzance, ostensibly protesting in the cause of world peace.[7] Like her father Lucy was diagnosed with schizophrenia.[3]
Russell was succeeded as Earl by his half-brother, the historian Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell.