Major-General Lord George William Russell GCB (8 May 1790 – 16 July 1846) was a British soldier, politician and diplomat. He was the second son of the 6th Duke of Bedford and brother to John Russell, the Whig and Liberal Prime Minister. Among his children were Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford, Arthur Russell, MP and diplomat Odo Russell.

Russell was born on 8 May 1790.^[1] He was the second son of the John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford by his first wife, Hon. Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. Among his siblings were John Russell, the Whig and Liberal Prime Minister.^[2]

He was educated by Dr. Moore at Sunbury, at Westminster School, and by the Rev. John Smith at Woodnesborough.^[2]

Upon gaining the rank of lieutenant in the 1st Dragoon Guards, Russell was appointed aide-de-camp (ADC) to Sir George Ludlow on his Copenhagen Expedition in 1807. During the Peninsular War he fought in the Battle of Talavera on 27 July 1809 where he was wounded. He was then ADC to General Thomas Graham in 1810 and fought at the Battle of Barossa in 1811. He was ADC to Viscount Wellington (later the Duke of Wellington) in 1812 and again in 1817, when the Duke was Ambassador in Paris.^[2]

As the brother of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Lord John Russell, he sat as Member of Parliament for Bedford from 1812 until 1830. He was invested as a Companion, Order of the Bath (CB) in 1831. He held the office of Minister to Lisbon in August 1833, the office of Minister to Württemberg in November 1833 and the office of Ambassador to Berlin in 1835. He was invested as a Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1838 and gained the rank of major-general in November 1841.^[2]

On 21 June 1817, Russell married Elizabeth Anne Rawdon (1793–1874), the daughter of Frances (née Hall-Stevenson) and Capt. the Hon. John Theophilus Rawdon of Bolney Court, the brother of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings. Her maternal grandparents were John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira and Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira.^[2] The couple were the parents of:^[3]

• Blanche Russell (1818–1818), who died young.^[3]
• Francis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford (1819–1891), who married Lady Elizabeth Sackville-West, daughter of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr and Elizabeth Sackville, 1st Baroness Buckhurst, in 1844.^[3]
• Lord Arthur John Edward Russell (1825–1892), the Whig and Liberal MP for Tavistock who married Laura de Peyronnet, daughter of Paul Louis Jules, Vicomte de Peyronnet, and Georgina Frances Whitfield, in 1865.^[3]
• Odo William Leopold Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill (1829–1884), the British diplomat and first British Ambassador to the German Empire who married Lady Emily Theresa Villiers, daughter of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon and Lady Katherine Grimston (daughter of the 1st Earl of Verulam), on 5 May 1868.^[4]

Lord George died in Genoa on 16 July 1846.^[2]

• Lloyd, E. M. & Seccombe, T. "Russell, Lord George William (1790–1846)", rev. James Falkner, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1], (Retrieved 28 Feb 2006) (subscription required)

• "Russell, George William" . Dictionary of National Biography. 1885–1900.
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord George Russell