Prime Ministers · 19th century

Lord John Russell

1792–1878 · British

Whig; Liberal

In office: 1846–1852; 1865–1866

Lord John Russell, later 1st Earl Russell, a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, introduced the Great Reform Bill in the Commons in 1831 and earned the nickname "Finality Jack" for declaring it a final settlement. As Prime Minister from 1846 to 1852 he presided over the later years of the Irish Famine, the Chartist demonstration of 1848 and the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was Foreign Secretary during the American Civil War and served a second brief term as PM in 1865–1866. He was the grandfather of the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

How to spot them

▸Introduced the Great Reform Bill in the Commons, 1831; 'Finality Jack'
▸The Durham Letter (1850) against 'Papal Aggression'
▸PM during the Irish Famine and the Great Exhibition of 1851
▸Grandfather of Bertrand Russell; lived at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park

In office

Introduced the Great Reform Bill in the House of Commons (1831)

Though not yet in the Cabinet, he presented Grey's bill

The Durham Letter against 'Papal Aggression' (1850)

Attacked the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England; led to the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851

Public Health Act creating a General Board of Health (1848)

Passed amid cholera and the reforms urged by Edwin Chadwick

The Ten Hours Act (1847)

Limited working hours for women and young people in textile mills

Foreign Secretary during the Trent affair and the Alabama case (1861–1862)

Anglo-American tensions during the American Civil War

Pardoned the Tolpuddle Martyrs as Home Secretary (1836)

The transported labourers were allowed to return

Quick-fire facts

•Nicknamed 'Finality Jack' for calling the 1832 Reform Act a final measure
•Grandfather and guardian of the philosopher Bertrand Russell
•Queen Victoria granted him Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park
•Created Earl Russell in 1861
•His second government resigned in 1866 after its Reform Bill, piloted by Gladstone, was defeated
•Famously small in stature

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Sources

GOV.UK History of Government — Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
Oxford University Press — Oxford Dictionary of National Biography