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General First nameChampion Branfill
LastnameRussell
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1860-04-26
Place of birthNorth Ockendon, London, England
Date of death1945-09-08
Place of deathNorth Ochendon, London, England


About

From The Times, 13 September 1945:

Obituary – Mr Champion B. Russell

Mr Champion Branfill Russell, who died on September 8 at the age of 85, was one of the best types of public-spirited private citizens – the country dweller with an horizon beyond his fields. He was educated at Wellington and University College, Oxford, where he helped to organize lawn tennis as a university sport. On leaving college he went out to learn ranching in Wyoming.

On his father’s death in 1887, Champion Russell came back to England and married the Honourable Isabel Bruce, daughter of the first Lord Aberdare – a most happy union, broken only by her death in 1934. They settled in the beautiful old family house, Stubbers, North Ockendon. In his love of nature, in his devotion to the duties of local government and the magistrates’ courts, Russell lived the life of a typical country squire. But into these activities he put an unusual amount of energy, zeal, and imagination.

As chairman of the county education committee, and as governor of several schools, he did much for education. As a magistrate he was occupied to the end of his life in plans for the amelioration of justice. As an active member of the Howard League for Penal Reform, he was constantly busied with constructive thinking. It was largely due to him that the successful experiment of paying token wages to prisoners was initiated by a private gift of money.

He was one of the founders of the Magistrates’ Association. He took every opportunity of insisting that English justice was much the poorer, and our administration of justice amongst the colonial native populations much less intelligible, on account of our comparative neglect of the principle of restitution as opposed to fines. This may have been partly because of his keen interest in the native life and customs of Africa due to visits to North Rhodesia and Uganda, where his son, John Napier Russell, is in the Education Service.

Feeling that further experiment in health and social welfare would clear the path towards the betterment of the natives, he characteristically gave the sum of £1,000 to the Colonial Office towards the inception of intensive work in the single district of Ajeluk, in Uganda. Russell was public-spirited but indifferent to publicity, wise without pedantry, humane without fanaticism – and a somewhat freakish humour added much to his charm.
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Media


Archive statistics Career1880 - 1888
Tournament wins2
Matches40
Match wins28


Tournament wins 1881 - Exeter (Amateur)
1881 - Teignmouth and Shaldon (Amateur)


Tournaments Essex Championships - 1888 Essex County Cricket Club - 1888 Northern Lawn Tennis Association Tournament - 1883 Oxford University Tournament - 1883 County Kildare Tournament - 1882 Wimbledon - 1881 Essex Championships - 1881 Exmouth - 1881 Teignmouth and Shaldon - 1881 Sussex County Lawn Tennis Tournament - 1881 Exeter - 1881 Oxford University Tournament - 1881 Leicester - 1880 Essex County Cricket Club - 1880