View source for Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford

{{Short description|British aviator and ornithologist}}
{{Other people|Mary Russell}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[Her Grace]]
| name = The Duchess of Bedford
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|DBE|ARRC|DStJ|FLS}}
| image = Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| caption = The Duchess of Bedford in 1898
| birth_name = Mary Du Caurroy Tribe
| birth_date = {{birth date|1865|9|26|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Stockbridge, Hampshire|Stockbridge]], [[Hampshire]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1937|3|22|1865|9|26|df=y}}
| death_place = [[North Sea]], off [[Great Yarmouth]], [[Norfolk]], England
| death_cause = 
| occupation = Aviator, [[ornithologist]]
| years_active = 
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford]]|1888}}
| children = [[Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford]]
| parents = [[Walter Tribe|Walter Harry Tribe]] and Sophy Lander
}}

'''Mary Du Caurroy Russell, Duchess of Bedford''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|DBE|ARRC|DStJ|FLS}} (née '''Tribe'''; 26 September 1865 – ca. 22 March 1937) was a British [[aviator]] and [[ornithologist]].<ref>"Obituary: Duchess Of Bedford" ''[[The Times]]'' (London, 29 March 1937) p. 12; Issue 47644</ref> She was honoured for her work in founding hospitals and working in them during the [[First World War]]. She later financed and took part in record breaking flights to Karachi and Cape Town.

==Early and personal life==
Born at [[Stockbridge, Hampshire|Stockbridge]], [[Hampshire]], she was the daughter of [[Walter Tribe|Walter Harry Tribe]], Anglican Archdeacon of [[Lahore]], and his wife, Sophy Lander. On 30/31 January 1888, she married [[Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford|Lord Herbrand Russell]] at [[Barrackpore]], [[British Raj]]. When Lord Herbrand inherited his childless brother's titles in 1893, she was styled as the Duchess of Bedford.<ref name="CP">{{cite book |editor1-first=G.E.|editor1-last=Cokayne|editor2-first=Vicary|editor2-last=Gibbs |editor3-first=H.A. |editor3-last=Doubleday |editor4-first=Geoffrey H. |editor4-last=White |editor5-first=Duncan |editor5-last=Warrand |editor6-first=Lord Howard |editor6-last=de Walden |title=The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant |edition=new |location=Gloucester, U.K. |publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing |year=2000 |volume=II |page=88}}</ref> Her only child, [[Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford|Hastings]], was born on 21 December 1888.<ref name="CP"/>

During the early 1900s she became one of the first Western women to study the Japanese martial art of [[jujutsu]], and she was featured in a series of instructional photographs for the book "The Fine Art of Jujutsu" (1905), written by [[Emily Diana Watts]].

==Work and activism==
A major area of organisation and work for the Duchess was in founding four hospitals in [[Woburn, Bedfordshire|Woburn]] and in the grounds of [[Woburn Abbey]]. The principal establishment was the Abbey Hospital that she financed and built in 1914, and where she worked as a nurse and radiographer through to the 1930s.<ref name=buxton/>

She chartered, and later bought the yacht ''Sapphire''{{efn|Not to be confused with the later yacht ''Sapphire'',<ref>{{cite web |title=s.y. SAPPHIRE |url=https://www.gunfleet.net/sy-sapphire |website=gunfleet.net |access-date=9 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Steam Yacht Sapphire |url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Steam_Yacht_Sapphire |publisher=[[Graces Guide]] |access-date=9 September 2022}}</ref> commissioned by her husband as a replacement in 1912.}} from a Mr. A. L. Barbour and later bought her from him, using her in ornithological voyages to the North of Scotland and Scandinavia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bedford, Duchess of |url=https://www.maritimeviews.co.uk/byy-biographies/bedford-duchess-of/ |website=The Bartlett Maritime Research Centre |access-date=9 September 2022}}</ref>

The Duchess was a [[ornithology|collector and watcher of birds]], and took an interest in bird migration. Between 1909 and 1914 she spent much time on [[Fair Isle]], often in the company of [[William Eagle Clarke]]. Her journal, ''A Bird-watcher's Diary'', was privately published in 1938 after her death.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Beolens, Bo.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/593239356|title=The eponym dictionary of mammals|date=2009|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|others=Watkins, Michael & Grayson, Michael|isbn=978-0-8018-9533-3|location=Baltimore|pages=34|oclc=593239356}}</ref>

She was a member of the [[Women's Tax Resistance League]], a group associated with the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] that used [[tax resistance]] to protest the disenfranchisement of women during the British [[women's suffrage]] movement.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2712&dat=19130425&id=1249AAAAIBAJ&sjid=WysMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4415,8792391 The Duchess of Bedford]. ''Votes for Women'' (25 April 1913) p. 5</ref>

==Aviation==
[[File:CD Barnard and Mary Russell 1929.jpg|thumb|left|Barnard and the Duchess returning from their India flight on 9 August 1929]]
Late in life at age 63, the Duchess became interested in aviation, that she claimed gave her some relief from her constant [[tinnitus]], although she eventually became totally deaf. In 1928 a large country house, [[Wispers]], near [[Midhurst]] in West Sussex, and its estate were bought by the [[Bedford Estate]] for Russell. She used Wispers as a weekend retreat: she was a keen [[aviator]] and flew her plane from the family seat at [[Woburn Abbey]] to Wispers, where she had a hangar constructed in the 1930s at the same time as the large eastern wing was being added to the house.  She used a nearby field as a landing strip.<ref name=CL>{{cite web|title=Historic country houses on the market|url=http://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/article/431431/Historic-country-houses-on-the-market.html|work=[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]|first=Penny|last=Churchill|date=2009-11-19|access-date=2011-05-30}}</ref><ref name=TCS>{{cite web|title=A country seat of learning: Wispers, Sussex|url=http://countryhouses.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/a-country-seat-of-learning-wispers-sussex/|work=The Country Seat|date=2010-05-14|access-date=2011-05-21}}</ref>

On 2 August 1929, she departed on a record-breaking flight of 10,000 miles from [[Lympne Airport]] to [[Karachi]] (then in India) and return to [[Croydon Airport]] in eight days. She was accompanied in her single-engined [[Fokker F.VII]] (G-EBTS, [[Princess Xenia (aircraft)|''Princess Xenia'']], which she renamed "The Spider" for its tenacity) by her personal pilot Captain [[C. D. Barnard]] and mechanic Robert (Bob) Little.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1929/1929-1%20-%200777.html ''Flight'' 15 August 1929], flightglobal.com</ref> On 8 April 1930 she made her first solo flight, in her [[de Havilland DH.60 Moth|DH.60G Moth]] (G-AAAO).<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1930/untitled0%20-%200445.html ''Flight'' 11 April 1930], flightglobal.com</ref> On 10 April 1930 she embarked on a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to [[Cape Town]], in "The Spider", flying 9,000 miles in 91 hours and twenty minutes over 10 days, again with Barnard and Little.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1930/untitled0%20-%200476.html ''Flight'' 25 April 1930], flightglobal.com</ref><ref>Jones, D. (1971) ''The Time Shrinkers: the Development of Civil Aviation between Britain and Africa''. Rendel. pp. 142–152.</ref>

In 1934 and again in 1935, with co-pilot F/Lt R. C. Preston in [[de Havilland Puss Moth]] G-ABOC, the Duchess made extensive flights from Britain to the Western Sahara and Northern Nigeria.<ref>Jones, D. (1971) ''The Time Shrinkers: the Development of Civil Aviation between Britain and Africa''. Rendel.  pp. 117–127.</ref>

==Honours==
[[File:Mary Russell vs Emily Diana Watts c1905.jpg|thumb|The Duchess (right) practising [[jujutsu]] with [[Emily Diana Watts]] {{circa}}&nbsp;1905]]
In January 1918, the duchess was awarded the [[Royal Red Cross]] in the second Associate grade, for her services to wartime nursing at Woburn Auxiliary Hospital.<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30500/supplement/1423 War Office]. ''The London Gazette'' (25 January 1918) Supplement: 30500, p. 1423</ref> She was appointed a [[Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in 1928.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://london.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/leading-women/flying-duchess-bedford|title=The Flying Duchess of Bedford|website=University of London}}</ref> She was also Dame of Grace of the [[Venerable Order of Saint John|Order of Saint John]] (DGStJ) and a Fellow of the [[Linnean Society]] of the [[Imperial College]] (FLS).<ref name="BP2003">{{cite book|editor-last=Mosley |editor-first=Charles |title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage |edition=107th |volume=1 |page=321 |location=Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. |publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd |year=2003}}</ref>

== Eponym == 
The [[Lesser striped shrew|Lesser Striped Shrew]] ''Sorex bedfordiae'' is named after her. It is found in Asia, from central China to Nepal, Assam and Myanmar.<ref name=":0" /> A [[moose]] from Siberia, ''Alces bedfordiae'', was named after her in 1902,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lydekker | first1 = Richard | date = June 1902 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31575637 | pages = 107–109 | title = Mr. Lydekker exhibited the skull and antlers (text-fig. 16, p. 108) of an adult male Elk from Siberia | journal = Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London | volume = 1902-I}}</ref> but the species is not currently considered valid.

==Death==
The duchess died aged 71, in March 1937, three months before [[Amelia Earhart]]'s death, after leaving Woburn Abbey in a [[De Havilland DH.60 Moth|DH.60GIII Moth Major]] (G-ACUR), that crashed into the [[North Sea]] off [[Great Yarmouth]]; her body was never recovered.<ref name=buxton/><ref name=jackson/><ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1937/1937%20-%200869.html ''Flight'' 1 April 1937], flightglobal.com</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of people who disappeared at sea]]
* [[List of suffragists and suffragettes]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

{{-}}
==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=buxton>Buxton, Meriel (2008). ''The High-Flying Duchess''. Woodperry. {{ISBN|978-0-9558925-0-9}}</ref>
<ref name=jackson>Jackson, A.J. (1973). ''British Civil Aircraft since 1919: Vol 2''. Putnam. {{ISBN|0-370-10010-7}}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford}}
*[[Ian Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford|Bedford, John Duke of]]. ''The Flying Duchess''. London: Macdonald & Co., 1968. ASIN B000RY7R0U

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedford, Mary Russell, Duchess of}}
[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1937 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:20th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:19th-century English women]]
[[Category:20th-century English women]]
[[Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents]]
[[Category:English activists]]
[[Category:English women activists]]
[[Category:English suffragists]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Dames of Grace of the Order of St John]]
[[Category:English ornithologists]]
[[Category:English tax resisters]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Red Cross]]
[[Category:Missing aviators]]
[[Category:People from Test Valley]]
[[Category:British women aviators]]
[[Category:British aviation record holders]]
[[Category:People from Woburn, Bedfordshire]]
[[Category:People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College]]
[[Category:British women aviation record holders]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1937]]
[[Category:Duchesses of Bedford]]
[[Category:British women in World War I]]
[[Category:British women ornithologists]]