War correspondent. Attended Trinity College, Dublin; took no degree. Admitted at Middle Temple, 1846; called to the bar, 1850; did not long pursue legal career. Became periodical contributor and newspaper reporter. For some time on staff of Morning Chronicle. In July 1850, sent by the Times to report Schleswig-Holstein War and later in same year to report a French naval review at Cherbourg. In 1854 sent to the Crimea; his Crimean letters in the Times established his fame as war correspondent. Served thereafter as correspondent during Indian Mutiny, American Civil War, Austro-Prussian War, Franco-Prussian War, South African War. In 1860 founded the Army and Navy Gazette; edited it to time of his death. Contributed to Cornhill and other periodicals. Published some fifteen books, most of them reprintings or recastings of his journalistic work (Dictionary of National Biography). Hon. LL.D. Trinity College, 1856; knighted 1895; recipient of many medals and orders.
Russell did not join the staff of the Daily News at the time of its founding by Dickens, though apparently he had the opportunity to do so. Dickens "was not a good editor" wrote Russell; "he was the best reporter in London, and as a journalist he was nothing more. He had no political instincts or knowledge, and was ignorant of and indifferent to what are called 'Foreign Affairs'" (Atkins, Life of Sir William Howard Russell, I, 58). Russell and Dickens became good friends. Dickens was present at the farewell supper given for Russell on his leaving England as a foreign correspondent in 1854. He was among the friends who gave Russell advice and encouragement on the Crimean lectures that Russell delivered in 1857. Dickens attended one of Russell's rehearsals and was a guest at the dinner that Russell gave to mark his advent as a lecturer. In 1858, when Russell was in India, Dickens wrote to thank him for his kindness to WaIter Dickens, then in the army in India. It was with "unspeakable pleasure", wrote Dickens, that he would see Russell at home in England again. As for Russell's writings as war correspondent, "Everybody talks about your letters and everybody praises them", wrote Dickens. "No one says, or can say, more of them than they deserve".
Men of the Time, 1856, states that Russell was "a contributor to 'Household Words'". (Later editions omit the statement). Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-1871) also records RusselI as a H.W. contributor. The two articles that the Office Book assigns to Russell are based on his stay in Belgium and in Italy; they are appropriate as his writing, since Russell had been several times on the Continent by 1852, the date at which the articles appeared.
Russell was mentioned in several H.W. articles. In one of the instalments (November 15 1856) of his "Journey Due North", Sala referred to an account of the Moscow coronation illuminations as written "by the Man who fought the Battle of England in the Crimea, better and more bravely than the whole brilliant staff who have been decorated with the order of the bath". In "A Side Wind from Due North" (January 10 1857), he corrected the statement, explaining that the account had been written by Mr. John Murphy of the Daily News, not by "Mr. William Russell, the distinguished correspondent of the Times newspaper". Dickens, in "The Best Authority", ridiculing the misinformed informant who always had access to secret documents and to private information on all matters of national and international concern, mentioned this "Best Authority" as having been in the Russian lines in the Crimea and in the English camp and as "always coming home to put MR. RUSSELL right". John Capper, in "A Very Black Act", stated that in exposing in his Indian newspaper the true state of affairs in India—the maladministration of the East India Co., the wavering irresolution of the British governor-general, the official truckling to incipient mutineers among the natives, "the cruel neglect of our own British soldiery"—he had had "some faint hope of emulating in a humble sphere and in a limited manner, the usefulness of William Russell, of the Times".
Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
