| Authorised form of name | Russell; Bertrand Arthur William (1872 - 1970); 3rd Earl Russell; logician; philosopher |
| Dates | 1872 - 1970 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Ravenscroft, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 18 May 1872 |
| Place of death | His home, Plas Penrhyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 02 February 1970 |
| Occupation | philosopher; journalist; political campaigner |
| Research field | Metaphysics |
| Ethics |
| Epistemology |
| Logic |
| Philosophy |
| Mathematics |
| Mathematical logic |
| Activity | Education:
Educated privately; Trinity College, Cambridge (1890-1894)
Career:
Taught German social democracy, London School of Economics (1896); published essays and books on mathematics (1897-1913); Lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge (1910); actively pacifist duing WWI (1914-1918); dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 (1916); imprisoned in Brixton Prison for six months for publicly lecturing against inviting the United States to enter the war on the United Kingdom's side (1918); reinstated to Trinity College, Cambridge (1919) then resigned (1920); Tarner Lecturer (1926); Visiting Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago (1938); Professor of Philosophy, University of California at Los Angeles (1939); Lecturer, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA (1941-1942); Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1944-1949); Involved in a plane crash en route to Norway (1948); released Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955); President of the first Pugwash Conference (1957); becomes founding President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (1958); imprisoned in connection with anti-nuclear protests (1961); established the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (1963); launched the International War Crimes Tribunal (1966).
died of acute bronchitis.
Memberships:
Coefficients dining club
Aristotelian Society (President 1911)
Medals and prizes:
De Morgan Medal 1932
Nobel Prize (Literature) 1950
Kalinga Prize 1957
Jerusalem Prize 1963
Honours:
OM 1949 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 07/05/1908 |
| Age at election | 36 |
| Proposer | Edward Divers |
| Robert Stawell Ball |
| Karl Pearson |
| Henry Head |
| George Howard Darwin |
| Ernest William Hobson |
| William Burnside |
| Andrew Russell Forsyth |
| Alfred North Whitehead |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Sylvester Medal 1934 |
| Relationships | Parents: John Russell, Viscount Amberley (1842–1876), eldest son of the first Earl Russell, previously Lord John Russell, and Kate (d. 1874 of diptheria), daughter of the second Baron Stanley of Alderley.
Paternal grandfather: Lord John Russell, later 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878).
Siblings: John Francis Stanley Russel, whom Bertrand succeeded as 3rd Earl (March 1931) and sister Rachel, who died at age of four.
Spouse: 1) (m. 13 December 1894; div. 1921) Alys Whitall (c.1867–1951), daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith, American Quaker; 2) (m. 1921; div. 1935) Dora Winifred Black, daughter of Sir Frederick Black; 3) (m. 1936; div. 1952) Patricia Helen Spence; 4) (m. 1952) Edith Finch (d. 1978).
Children: From second marriage: John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell (1921–1987) and Lady Katharine Jane Russell (1923–2021); from third marriage: Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell (1937–2004). |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 49222
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| OtherInfo | Distinguished for his researches concerning the Principles of Mathematics and the Mathematical Treatment of the Logic of Relations.
Credited as one of the founder of analytic philosophy.
Influenced mathematics, logic, and set theory and championed logicism.
Noted for his pacifism and anti-nuclear protests and his campaign against western involvement in the Vietnam War. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell, First published Thu Dec 7, 1995; substantive revision Tue Oct 15, 2024, [URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/; last accessed: 13/08/2025]
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1973 vol 19 pp 583-620, plate, by G Kreisel
References:
Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 'At the Feet of Whitehead', review of Victor Lowe, Alfred North Whitehead. The Man and His Work. Vol 1 (1861-1910), Vol 2 (1910-1947) in NR 1991 vol 45 pp 271-276
Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 'Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) After Twenty Years', essay review in NR 1990 vol 44 pp 280-306, plate
Nicholas Griffin and Albert C Lewis, 'Bertrand Russell's Mathematical Education' in NR 1990 vol 44 pp 51-71
I Gratton-Guinness, 'The Royal Society's Financial Support of the Publication of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica' in NR 1975-6 vol 30 pp 89-104
G V R Born, FRS, 'The wide-ranging family history of Max Born' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 219-262 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/36924137 |
| Code | NA1187 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1908/15 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/003933 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | nd |
| IM/003931 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | nd |
| IM/003932 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | nd |
| IM/003930 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | nd |
| IM/Meitner Graf/003934 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | 1969 |
| PB/8/28/3/2 | Correspondence with colleagues and friends after delivery and publication of Blackett's Presidential Address to the British Academy. | c.1957 |
| PB/6/3/2/7 | Correspondence with Bertrand Russell re disarmament | 1963 |
| NLB/37/871 | Copy Letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to W [William] Barlow, Fellow of the Royal Society | 26 May 1908 |
| NLB/61/347 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Honorary [Bertrand Arthur William] Russell, FRS | 20 June 1921 |
| IM/003929 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | nd |
| IM/003928 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | nd |
| IM/003935 | Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell | 1962 |