John Russell, 7th Earl Russell
John Francis Russell, 7th Earl Russell, is a photographer and part-time Liberal Democrat politician. He succeeded to the earldom on the death of his brother Nicholas Russell, 6th Earl Russell, in 2014, and is the younger son of Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell, a grandson of Bertrand Russell and a great-great-grandson of John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, who was a mid-19th-century Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Russell served as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Lewisham Borough Council from 2006 to 2010 and in 2012 was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Greenwich and Lewisham seat on the Greater London Assembly. In the 2017 general election, he stood for the House of Commons in Lewisham West and Penge, representing the Liberal Democrats, but Labour held the seat.
Russell is the current serving chairman of trustees for the adventure learning charity Wide Horizons. He discovered adventure as a teenager when visiting one of Wide Horizons centres in Wales and since then has been passionate about providing disadvantaged children with opportunities for adventures, for their education and development. Russell joined the board of Wide Horizons in 2006 and became Chair in 2012. Wide Horizons is one of the largest charities of its kind in the UK and in 2012/3 delivered adventure to more than 38,000 children.
Professionally, Russell has worked for some years as a freelance photographer, specializing in "political photography, event photography, charity commissions and landscapes".
