50th Anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Russell 24th February 2014
Last Updated: 24th Dec 2021By Roy Starkey
An Appreciation of Sir Arthur Russell on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Death - 24th February 1964 (Mindat version 24 February 2014)
This article is an abridged version of a longer electronic publication (which includes many previously unpublished images)available from the Russell Society website https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.14/bhe.28d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/An-Appreciation-of-Sir-Arthur-Russell.pdf
INTRODUCTION
Sir Arthur Edward Ian Montague Russell (1878-1964) 6th Baronet, of Swallowfield Park, Reading, Berkshire, was perhaps the greatest British mineral collector of the 20th century. His tenacity and dogged determination in seeking out the very best specimens for his collection was comparable to the reputation of the Canadian Mounties in always “getting their man”.
The article makes extensive use of hyperlinks to direct the reader to additional information and other sources, rather than reproducing extensive verbatim transcripts of material published elsewhere.
A full obituary of Sir Arthur, by his great friend Arthur Kingsbury, was published in the Mineralogical Magazine (1966) Vol.35 : p673-677. http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_35/35-273-673.pdf
A brief overview of his life has also been provided by Alan Hart and Bob Symes (1991) in the Journal of the Russell Society, 4 (1). Available here http://www.mindat.org/getjrs.php?i=04-1
There are various on-line resources which provide an insight to Sir Arthur’s long and interesting life, and a good place to start is the Mineralogical Record label archive http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=750 which, whilst reproducing much of the information from Kingsbury’s obituary of Russell, also includes good images of a range of Russell’s labels.
Wikipedia also has a short summary of information about Sir Arthur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Russell,_6th_Baronet and includes links to biographical details about some of the people whose collections he gradually incorporated into his own, such as Philip Rashleigh, John Hawkins, Robert Were Fox, Alfred Fox, Sir Maziere Brady, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth, John Ruskin, Arthur Champernowne, J. H. Collins and Samuel Henson.
More recently, Jane Robb, as part of her studies for an MRes in Heritage Science from University College London, used social science techniques to understand the perceived value (i.e. educational, historical, uniqueness…) of geological collections in museums. She undertook her research based around the Russell Collection at the Natural History Museum. You can read more about this here http://geoheritagescience.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/sir-arthur-russell-and-the-preservation-of-a-national-collection/
Jane says that “These insights were used to improve collections care in museums, but also to enhance my understanding of how people relate to science – knowledge useful when engaging audiences in science education.”
The results of the project have been published in The Geological Curator Volume 9, No.10. December 2013.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
The Peerage http://thepeerage.com/p7928.htm provides genealogical links and information to Sir Arthur’s family and descendants, and it was through help from Darryl Lundy, the compiler of this fantastic website, who is coincidentally based in Wellington, New Zealand, that I managed to trace one of Sir Arthur’s sons (Sir Mervyn Russell), and enjoy the privilege of meeting him and his son Ian back in 2012.
Sir Mervyn recalled going on field trips with his father (Sir Arthur), travelling by train and visiting mines all over the British Isles as a boy during school holidays when he was about 11 or 12, and that he was employed to wriggle into places that Sir Arthur could not reach, to collect specimens. Mervyn had good eyesight and often found good specimens and told me that he was well rewarded! He also carried out various curatorial tasks for Sir Arthur, including mounting specimens and writing out catalogue cards. Apparently, Sir Arthur used to collect specimens for himself, and “a museum” at the same time, and some of the mine managers used to get a little fed up as he would come back looking for another sample for “another museum”. Sir Mervyn also told me that Sir Arthur used to get paid by some of the mining companies, to provide technical advice. Sir Mervyn Russell himself attended the Camborne School of Mines and worked for a time in mines in both Wales and Cornwall. Apparently Sir Arthur was not enamoured of having russellite named after him, and simply hated having his photo taken (which is presumably why there are relatively few surviving images of him). He did however enjoy a passion for steam engines and railways. There was a pretty constant stream of visitors to Swallowfield to meet Sir Arthur, and to examine his mineral collection, with some pretty famous people amongst them. Mervyn told me that Sir Arthur did pretty much everything himself with regard to the collection and that it was stored in large cabinets with his library being in a separate room. Sir Arthur evidently spent almost all of his time, whilst at home, in the mineral room wing of Swallowfield.
The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford holds certain Russell family papers given by Sir Arthur Russell in 1952 http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/russell/russell.html
and
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/russell2/russell2.html
Josephine also kindly provided the following extract from the memoranda of his mother, Lady Constance Charlotte Elizabeth Russell, “Mano's Memories and Memoranda”, page 85.
“My second son was born at Folkestone, Mr Lewis attending for the event. He was christened at the church close to us, and his God-parents were H.S.H. Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Lord Lorne (afterwards Duke of Argyll) and Lady Wynford (a daughter of my father’s cousin Lady Georgina Baillie). He was given the names of Arthur Edward Ian Montague, the last of these names being the Christian name of Lady Wynford. He was unfortunate in his first nurse: she was called Corkran, and came from Devonshire very highly recommended, but there was some mystery about her and I had to get rid of her. After that he had a charming one called “Primmer,” but she left me in 1880 to marry “Hoskins,” then I had an equally nice one – “Smith,” who left after six years to marry “Payne,” followed by a bonnie braw Scotch girl – Christina – who married “Bliss!” The last nurse I had was Mrs Thomas, from Cornwall. We gave my second son the name of Arthur, after my only brother who died at Swallowfield in 1876. I have said little or nothing about him hitherto, as I hope to write a separate sketch about him.”
SWALLOWFIELD PARK
Swallowfield Park is a 17th Century Grade II listed mansion dating back to 1678. The house was designed by architect William Talman, better known for his English baroque design at Chatsworth House (home of another famous mineral collector!), and a student of Sir Christopher Wren. The house is situated in 25 acres of traditionally maintained parkland, at the junction of the River Blackwater and River Loddon, and the private grounds offer a pleasant English riverside environment with water meadows, a bridge, lawns, pathways, ancient trees and a long approach driveway. The small red brick bridge over the River Blackwater bears the date 1722 and the initial of a subsequent owner, Thomas “Diamond” Pitt, great grandfather of former Prime Minister, William Pitt. In 1820 the house was purchased by Sir Henry Russell, in whose family it remained until 1965. Sir Henry’s second son, Charles Russell, was MP for Reading from 1830-1837 and played an important part in pioneering the Great Western Railway.
A detailed history of Swallowfield has been provided by Lady Constance Russell “Swallowfield and its Owners” (1901), and a copy is available on-line here https://archive.org/details/swallowfieldand00russgoog
For readers interested to learn more, there is also an
interesting socio-economic historical case study of
Swallowfield, available on-line from the University of Warwick here http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/research/eicah/houses/swallowfieldpark/swallowfield.pdf
Swallowfield Park was sold, upon Sir Arthur’s death, to the Mutual Householders Association, and subsequently divided into 34 apartments. The MHA evolved into the Country Houses Association which sadly went into administration in 2003. The property was later acquired by Sunley Holdings of Berkeley Square, and after several years of refurbishment there are now 29 apartments, sold on 125 year leases. You can take a virtual tour of the house here http://www.sunleyheritage.co.uk/SP_index.cfm but please remember that the house and grounds are private property and there is no public access.
THE MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY
The Mineralogical Society was a hugely important part of Sir Arthur Russell’s life. He was elected to membership at the meeting on 18th November 1902 http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_13/13-61-xxvii.pdf , and was a very regular participant at Society Meetings in London, often exhibiting specimens, and reading papers (many, but not all of which were subsequently published in the pages of the Mineralogical Magazine).
The Mineralogical Society has generously digitised, and made freely available, an entire archive of the Mineralogical Magazine from Vol.1 No.1 (1876) through to Vol. 63 (1999). This is a fabulous resource, and means that almost all of Sir Arthur’s published work is freely available on-line. (He also published a paper in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (1952) on Philip Rashleigh and another on John Hawkins (in 1954), in the same Journal, but these do not appear to be available in a digital format on-line).
The articles listed below can be accessed via direct hyperlinks in the full version of the article. Sir Arthur is the sole author unless otherwise listed:-
On the Occurrence of Linarite and Caledonite in County Wicklow Mineralogical Magazine (1907) 14 : 348-349.
Note on the Mines and Minerals of the Silvermines District, Co. Tipperary Mineralogical Magazine (1907) 14 : 350-353.
On the Occurrence of the Rare Mineral Carminite in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1910) 15 : 285-287.
Notes on the Occurrence of Zeolites in Cornwall and Devon Mineralogical Magazine (1910) 15 : 377-384.
On the Occurrence of Phenacite in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1911) 16 : 55-62.
Prehnite from the Lizard District, Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1912) 16 : 217-218.
Notes on the Occurrence of Dundasite in Derbyshire and Co. Galway Mineralogical Magazine (1912) 16 : 272-273.
An Account of the Minerals Found in the Virtuous Lady Mine, near Tavistock Mineralogical Magazine (1913) 17 : 1-14.
Notes on the Occurrence of Bertrandite at Some New Localities in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1913) 17 : 15-21.
On the Occurrence of Phenacite and Scheelite at Wheal Cock, St. Just, Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1920) 19 : 19-22.
On the Occurrence of Cotunnite, Anglesite, Leadhillite, and Galena on Fused Lead from the Wreck of the Fire-Ship ‘Firebrand’ in Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1920) 19 : 64-68.
Topaz from Cornwall, with an Account of Its Localities Mineralogical Magazine (1924) 20 : 221-236.
A Notice of the Occurrence of Native Arsenic in Cornwall; of Bismuthinite at Shap, Westmorland; and of Smaltite and Niccolite at Coniston, Lancashire Mineralogical Magazine (1925) 20 : 299-304.
Mineralogical Society (Instituted February 3, 1876.), Jubilee Celebration (September, 1926.) (See pages 124-128 – Southern Field Excursion led by Mr Arthur Russell) Mineralogical Magazine (1926) 21 : 99-148. (This also includes a nice group photo of the party at the Roche Rock, Cornwall, with both Arthur Russell and Sir Charles Russell figured).
Arthur Russell and Prof. A. Hutchinson On Laurionite and Associated Minerals from Cornwall
Mineralogical Magazine (1927) 21 : 221-228.
On the Occurrence of the Rare Mineral Nadorite in Cornwall, and of Beraunite in Co. Cork, Ireland Mineralogical Magazine (1927) 21 : 272-275.
Notice of an Occurrence of Niccolite and Ullmannite at the Settlingstones Mine, Fourstones, Northumberland; and of Serpierite at Ross Island Mine, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland Mineralogical Magazine (1927) 21 : 383-387.
On the Occurrence of Native Gold at Hope's Nose, Torquay, Devonshire Mineralogical Magazine (1929) 22 : 159-162.
Notes on the Occurrence of Fluorite in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire Mineralogical Magazine (1936) 24 : 307-317.
Baryte Crystals from the Manvers Main Colliery, Wath-Upon-Dearne, Near Rotherham, Yorkshire Mineralogical Magazine (1936) 24 : 318-320.
Notes on the Occurrence of Wulfenite at Brandy Gill, Cumberland, and of Leadhillite at Drumruck Mine, Kirkcudbrightshire Mineralogical Magazine (1936) 24 : 321-323.
Max H. Hey, F. A. Bannister and Arthur Russell Russellite, a New British Mineral (includes pp49-55 The occurrence and associations of russellite by A.Russell) Mineralogical Magazine (1938) 25 : 41-55.
Notes on Some Minerals Either New or Rare to Britain Mineralogical Magazine (1944) 27 : 1-10.
An Account of the Struy Lead Mines, Inverness-Shire, and of Wulfenite, Harmotome, and Other Minerals Which Occur There Mineralogical Magazine 1946 27 : 147-154.
Baryte and Fluorite from Loch Bruicheach, Beauly, Inverness-Shire Mineralogical Magazine (1946) 27 : 155-156.
On Rhodonite and Tephroite from Treburland Manganese Mine, Altarnun, Cornwall; and on Rhodonite from Other Localities in Cornwall and Devonshire Mineralogical Magazine (1946) 27 : 221-235.
On Rashleighite, a New Mineral from Cornwall, Intermediate between Turquoise and Chalcosiderite Mineralogical Magazine (1948) 28 : 353-358.
The Wherry Mine, Penzance, Its History and its Mineral Productions Mineralogical Magazine (1949) 28 : 517-533.
John Henry Heuland Mineralogical Magazine (1950) 29 : 395-405.
Sir Arthur Russell and E. A. Vincent On the Occurrence of Varlamoffite (Partially Hydrated Stannic Oxide) in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1952) 29 : 817-826.
On the Occurrence of Turquoise in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1952) 29 : 909-912.
The Rev. William Gregor (1761–1817), Discoverer of Titanium Mineralogical Magazine (1955) 30 : 617-624.
In addition to his many published papers, Russell was a regular exhibitor at, and contributor to, meetings of the Mineralogical Society. Thanks to the superb digitised archive of early editions of the Mineralogical Magazine, which include reports of meetings and extracts from Council Minutes, it is possible to gain an appreciation of quite how active Sir Arthur was, and to get a sense of his huge enthusiasm for the subject of minerals and everything associated with them. The following snippets have been pieced together from a trawl through the archive. One can almost sense the excitement (both that of Sir Arthur, and any potential participants at the meetings) at what he might be about to produce or lay out on the table at any given time – there must have been a considerable element of “fun” in all of this, as well as academic rigour. I understand from Bob Symes, that on “Min.Soc.” meeting days, Sir Arthur would almost invariably turn up at the Museum in the late morning to meet with Peter Embrey and Arthur Kingsbury, and any “visiting dignatories” from the mineralogical world who might be “in town”. They would then go to lunch at Peter’s favourite Italian restaurant near the South Kensington Underground Station.
It is recorded in the Minutes of the Council Meeting, that Mr Arthur Edward Ian Montagu [sic] Russell was elected a member of the Mineralogical Society on 18th November 1902. Elected at the same meeting were Mr Herbert Stanley Jeavons, Mr Andrew Gibb Maitland, Mr John Smith Flett, Mr John Allen Howe and Mr Frederic Philip Mennell.
The first entry I can find relating to Arthur Russell relates to the “Anniversary Meeting” of the Mineralogical Society on 15th November 1904, “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited a large specimen of “babel-quartz” which he had found at great Work mine, Breage, Cornwall.” This was followed by the General Meeting held on 31st January 1905, at which“Mr Arthur Russell exhibited a specimen of phenakite and one of aurichalcite from Cornish localities.”
Mr Arthur Russell read a paper “On some new mineral localities in Cornwall and Devon” at the General Meeting on 15th March 1905, and the following year, at the General Meeting held on 20th March 1906, with twenty-four Members and one Visitor present, Mr Arthur Russell read a paper “On the occurrence of Caledonite and Linarite in County Wicklow”, and in addition to specimens shown by the authors in illustration of their papers … “Mr. Arthur Russell exhibited crystals of Brookite recently collected by him at Tremadoc.”
At the general Meeting on 19th March 1907, the following papers were read …. “On the minerals of the Silvermines district, Co. Tipperary: by Mr Arthur Russell”, and “Specimens were exhibited by Mr Butler [F.H.] and Mr Russell in illustration of their papers”, but his next “appearance” was not until the “Anniversary Meeting” on 17th November 1908, which saw Russell presenting a paper “On the occurrence of the rare mineral Carminite in Cornwall.”
Mention is made of a display of “… other minerals submitted by Mr. Arthur Russell” at the General Meeting on 26th January 1909, but no details are given.
At the General Meeting on 21st March 1911, Russell presented a paper “Notes on the occurrence of Dundasite in Derbyshire and Co. Galway, and of Bertrandite in Cornwall”, and later that year at the general Meeting on 13th June 1911, Russell presented a paper “On Prehnite from the Lizard District”, and this too was supported by an exhibit of specimens.
In 1912, at the General Meeting on 12th March Russell presented a paper “Notes on the minerals and mineral localities of Shropshire”, and it is noted that “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited in illustration of [his] paper a fine series of specimens recently collected in Shropshire.”
The “Anniversary Meeting” on 12th November 1912 saw Russell presenting what is probably one of the finest Topographical Mineralogy papers ever written “An account of the minerals found in the Virtuous Lady mine, near Tavistock”, and it is further noted that “Mr Russell exhibited a fine series of specimens from the Virtuous Lady mine in illustration of his paper”, and it is noted in the following Council Meeting that “Half the cost of the three plates illustrating his paper on the minerals found at the Virtuous Lady mine was defrayed by Mr. Arthur Russell.”
At the General Meeting on 11th March 1913 Mr Arthur Russell read a paper on “The minerals and mineral-localities of Montgomeryshire” and exhibited “mineral specimens from Montgomeryshire in illustration of his paper”, and he was back at the “Anniversary Meeting” on 13th November 1913, where Russell presented a paper “Notes on the minerals occurring in the neighbourhood of Meldon, near Okehampton, Devonshire”, and at this meeting “Specimens of minerals from Meldon, Devonshire, were exhibited by Mr A. Russell and Mr F.P. Mennell.” Arthur Russell also exhibited “Specimens of Heulandite and Prehnite from Wales.”
At the General Meeting on 20th June 1916, Russell presented a paper “Note on a new occurrence of gold in Cornwall”, followed at the “Anniversary Meeting” on 5th November 1916, by the presentation of a paper on“The chromite deposits in the island of Unst, Shetlands”, supported by a display of “a fine series of minerals from Unst by Lieut. Russell.”
At the General Meeting on 10th February 1922, Russell presented two papers – the first, jointly with Dr A. Hutchinson, “On laurionite and paralaurionite from Cornwall”; and the second as sole author “On a discovery of pitchblende at Kingswood mine, Buckfastleigh, Devon.” These papers were supported by a display - “minerals from Cornwall were exhibited by Mr Arthur Russell and Dr. Hutchinson in illustration of their paper.”
At the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 3rd November 1925, Russell presented a paper on“New British occurrences of alstonite and barytocalcite”, and supported this with a display of specimens. There was then something of a lull in his reported activities until, at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 4th November 1930, Russell presented the first of a series of five papers on “An account of British Mineral Collectors and Dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries”. [His manuscript notes which presumably formed the basis of these papers, are preserved in the Mineralogy Library of the Natural History Museum, and were used extensively by Cooper (2006) in the underpinning research for his magnum opus “Robbing the Sparry
Garniture” now available for the bargain price of only $10 from http://www.minrec.org/bookdetail.asp?id=44 ].
Some six years later, at the General Meeting on 9th June 1931, he continued this theme with a paper on “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 2], and he followed this up at the “Anniversary Meeting” on 3rd November 1931 - “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited a fine nugget of gold from County Wicklow, which he had recently acquired.”
Russell had evidently committed a lot of time and effort to this line of historical research and at the General Meeting on 19th January 1932 he presented “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 3], shortly followed at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 1st November 1932 by two further papers “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 4]; and “Note on occurrence of witherite at the Morrison North Pit, Stanley, Co. Durham”, but apparently without any supporting exhibit.
The minutes of the Council Meeting held on 15th June 1933 record that “The Secretary reported that a very successful excursion was made to Swallowfield Park to see Mr. Arthur Russell’s collection of British minerals. This was attended by twenty-four members and guests, and the thanks of the Society were conveyed to Sir Charles and Mr Arthur Russell”, and a further note marking this event appeared in the Annual Report of Council for 1933, where the date of the visit is stated to be 20th May and it is said the party “spent a most interesting afternoon inspecting Mr Russell’s unrivalled collection of British minerals.”
Russell read a paper at the “General (Anniversary) Meeting” on 9th November 1933 “On the occurrence of harmotome at several new localities in the British Isles”, but on this occasion it appears there was no accompanying exhibit, and in the Spring of the following year, at the General Meeting on 15th March 1934 Russell delivered what was to be the final instalment of his fascinating study “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 5].
The General Meeting on 24th January 1935 saw Russell reading another of his particularly interesting topographic papers “Notes on the occurrence of fluorite in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire”, and at the General Meeting on 14th March 1935, the displays included “A fine stalagmite of calcite from a cave at Cheddar, Mendip Hills: exhibited by Mr. Arthur Russell” (although collecting speleothems would, of course, be frowned upon nowadays).
At the General Meeting on 30th January 1936 “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited specimens of withamite from the new road in Glencoe and of almandine from Loch Garve, Ross-shire, collected in 1935.”
At the General Meeting on 11th March 1937 Russell read a paper “On the occurrence of turquoise in Cornwall”, this being accompanied by “Specimens … exhibited in illustration of the paper.”
The General (Anniversary) Meeting held on 4th November 1937 saw a bumper display of “Minerals from Castle-an-Dinas mine, Cornwall, including cassiterite, topaz, arsenopyrite, native bismuth, turquoise, scorodite on wavellite, and russellite; also bismuthinite from St. Wenn, and beryl and cassiterite from St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall”, by Mr Arthur Russell. The meeting also included the reading of a paper by Dr F.H.Bannister and Dr M.H.Hey “Russellite, a new British mineral.”
The General Meeting held on 10th March 1938 was treated to an exhibit by Mr. Arthur Russell of “A manuscript catalogue of Philip Rashleigh’s collection of minerals with entries made by him between 1784 and 1804, on loan from the Truro Museum. Pages were shown containing descriptions of chalcophyllite, connellite and pharmacosiderite, written some fifteen years before these minerals were named.” Russell also put on a display of minerals “Specimens of hemimorphite from Millclose mine, Derbyshire; cassiterite from Minas Vella, Portugal; apatite and quartz from Bovey Tracey, Devonshire; withamite from Glen Coe, Scotland; wollastonite and idocrase from Okehampton, Devonshire; and chalcopyrite from Wanlockhead, Scotland.”
Russell’s next exhibits, at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 3rd November 1938, included “A magnificent polished slab of rhodonite from Pencrebar, Callington, Cornwall; and a large crystal of ilmenite in schist from Craig of Dhoune, Glen Effock, Forfarshire”, followed by a display with an international theme at the General Meeting on 9th March 1939, of “Minerals from Mina da Panasqueira, Fundao, Beira Baixa, Portugal”, this being mounted jointly with Dr W.R.Jones. He also read another of his landmark papers “The Wherry mine, Penzance, its history and its mineral production”.
The General (Anniversary) Meeting on 9th November 1939 saw Russell, perhaps at the pinnacle of his mineralogical career, being elected President of the Mineralogical Society, and on this occasion he “exhibited specimens of garnet, wollastonite, kyanite, zircon and magnetite which he had recently collected in Co. Donegal”.
At the General Meeting on 25th January 1940, Russell read a paper on a subject close to his heart “Notes on the occurrence of fluorite in the west Cumberland iron mines and in the Lake District of Cumberland and Westmorland”, but seemingly without the now “expected” accompanying display of specimens.
His new responsibilities as President did little to slow down his field activities, and at the General Meeting on 23rd January 1941 he read a paper “Note on some minerals either new or rare to Britain.”
This was followed at the General Meeting on 5th June 1941 by “Notes on some minerals new or rare to Britain. Part 2: Orpiment.”
Russell’s term of office came to an end at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 5th November 1942, with Dr W.F.P. McLintock proposing a vote of thanks to the retiring President and Ordinary Members of Council, which was seconded by Dr G.F. Herbert Smith. In his “parting shot”,“Mr Arthur Russell, vacating the chair in favour of his successor, Mr F.N.Ashcroft, paid tribute to the latter’s untiring service for the Society.” Russell’s contribution to the meeting on this occasion was an exhibit of “a banded replacement of fluorite in limestone from Co. Durham.”
At the General Meeting on 24th Janauary 1946, the then President, Dr W.Campbell Smith “exhibited specimens of pyrochroite, ganophyllite and native copper from Benallt mine, Rhiw, Caernarvonshire”, and one imagines that Russell (now Sir Arthur) might well have made enquiries as to how he could get samples of these minerals!
Sir Arthur’s exhibit was of “blende from Liruwie-n-Kano, Northern Nigeria, and from Trevaunance mine, St. Agnes, Cornwall; stannite and arsenopyrite from Cligga Mine, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall; beryl from Hawks Wood mine, North Hill, Cornwall; rock-cruystal from Dungiven, Co. Londonderry; and garnet, wollastonite, and diopside from Aphort, Aran Island, Co. Donegal.”
At the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 7th November 1946, Sir Arthur put on a display of “A selection of the original drawings, plates, and manuscript of Philip Rashleigh’s “Specimens of British Minerals”, part I, 1797, and part II, 1802”, and also “A small complete stone which fell in the roadway in Adare village, Co. Limerick, during the meteorite shower on September 10th, 1813. He was unfortunately unable to exhibit the largest stone, said to weigh 65 lb., for which he had been searching during the past three summers and had at last traced only to be forestalled by a few weeks by another collector” [C’est la vie!]
At the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 10th November 1949, Sir Arthur read another of his most interesting topographical papers “An account of the antimony mines of Great Britain and Ireland and of the minerals found therein”, which has never been published, but of which, a manuscript copy survives in the archives of the Natural History Museum, London.
The Excerpt Minutes of the Council meeting held on 7th October 1948 include a note that “The President commented upon the success of the Society’s visit, with foreign guests from the International Geological Congress, to Sir Arthur Russell’s collection of minerals at Swallowfield Park, Reading. It was decided that the cost of transport from London be borne by the Society, and that a letter of thanks be sent to Sir Arthur Russell for his generous hospitality.”
The Anniversary Meeting held on 1st November 1951 included a paper by Sir Arthur Russell and Dr E.A. Vincent “On the occurrence of varlamoffite in Cornwall”.
At the General Meeting on 24th March 1955, Sir Arthur read a paper “Additional notes on rhodonite deposits in Devonshire”, and later that year (at the Council Meeting on 9th June), “The gratitude of the Council was expressed to Sir Arthur Russell for his most generous offer to bequeath to the Society a valuable collection of early works on mineralogy and mining, with special reference to Cornwall.” Coincidentally, at the same meeting (9th June 1955), Sir Arthur presented (jointly with Frank Claringbull) a paper on “Ceruleite, CuAl4(AsO4)2(OH)8.4H2O, from Wheal Gorland, Gwennap, Cornwall.”
The last recorded active involvement of Sir Arthur at Mineralogical Society Meetings, appears to have been the reading of a paper on “Cornubite, a new mineral from Cornwall”, presented jointly with Frank Claringbull and Max Hey at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 7th November 1957, aged 79.
SIR ARTHUR RUSSELL’S BEQUEST
Sir Arthur Russell’s Will directed that his collection should be given to the British Museum (Natural History) – now the Natural History Museum.
The task of collating, organising and transporting Sir Arthur Russell’s collection from Swallowfield Park to South Kensington, fell to Bob Symes and (the late) John Fuller. They stayed locally to Swallowfield, in “digs”, and worked Monday-Friday for about 6 weeks, packing all of the specimens into the Museum’s huge stockpile of wooden ammunition boxes. Vast amounts of packaging material were consumed – paper, cotton waste and the like (long before “Bubble Wrap”!), and they were instructed not to rush and to make sure that the specimens were well-protected. At the end of the packing phase a removals company came and moved the collection by lorry to South Kensington. Bob recalls that their boss, Frank Claringbull, made several visits during the project to see how they were getting on, and that Peter Embrey and also Reg Parkinson (mineral dealer of Shepton Mallett) called in as well from time to time. Parkinson got on very well with Sir Arthur and had been a regular visitor to Swallowfield. The “scene of the action” was the two main “mineral rooms” towards the right hand end of the brick-built wing of the house as viewed from the front (seen in Fig.24 below), and this was where the main collection, and some literature also, was housed in fine wooden cabinets (as now seen in the Russell Room). There was another room full of rather battered old cabinets, housing Sir Arthur’s duplicate material, empty storage trays, offprints of published papers and the like.
The “Russell Room”, high in the east tower of the Natural History Museum in London, is, for many, the pinnacle of British Mineralogy. It has the aura and feel of an “inner sanctum” and it is indeed a treasure trove of all that is finest in specimen mineralogy. The privileged few who have entered this repository over the years to study and research Sir Arthur’s specimens will all have been over-awed by the breadth and depth of his collection, and the sheer determination of the man who needed “the best” of everything to do with British Mineralogy, and worked tirelessly to achieve this goal.
The range and pedigree of the collections he acquired over some seventy years of active collecting is quite simply amazing. Of course, it must have helped to have had the financial means, and the time, to pursue such a quest, but the dogged perseverance and sheer tenacity of the man shine through above all else. Collectors today can only dream of the sort of opportunities which presented themselves to Sir Arthur, and those who take time to review the pages of the Mineralogical Magazine, and gain an appreciation of Russell’s contemporaries, revealed by those pages, will come to appreciate that he indeed lived in a “golden age” for British specimen mineralogy.
And Finally ….I’d like to share with you a story related to me by Brian Craik-Smith, who, back in 1983, had the good fortune to purchase a mid-19th century walnut-veneered mahogany mineral cabinet (with 40 apple drawers and ebony handles) for the princely sum of twenty pounds. Many of the stuck drawers were to prove more interesting than the cabinet itself, which was reportedly one from Swallowfield Park, purchased by the company Rayner of 100 New Bond Street, London. [Interestingly this aligns with information received quite independently from Richard Braithwaite (see above)].
The drawers turned out to contain a wide selection of old labels (and some accompanying specimens) – the sort of serendipitous outcome which most of us can only dream about. Brian has done some detective work and analysis on various of the labels and plans to publish an article on his findings in due course.
In the course of discussing this with Brian, he happened to mention that John Willmouth had also acquired a number of cabinets, and so I thought I should follow that up too. John kindly provided the following notes.
“I was actually given 3 of them by Ollie Fisher (surviving partner of R.F. Parkinson, Doulting, near Shepton Mallet), but the third had dry rot in the carcase, and I had to burn it. However, the drawers of that one survived and are now incorporated into a couple of cabinets made by a friend and they look superb!
My partner used to live next door to Ollie Fisher in Doulting when I first met her, and in passing (she knew nothing of Ollies involvement with minerals) she mentioned that I had minerals ('rocks and bits of brick and concrete' as she so charmingly referred to them in those days!) everywhere and need a place to keep them (and it was a comparatively small collection then!). She was told by Ollie to have me present myself to her, which I did, and was closely examined on a rather small range of common minerals. I came to realise that Ollie knew a lot about a few minerals. It was at this time she told me that she had started as a part-timer with Parkinson some 35 years previously and finished up a partner in the company, surviving RFP.
She then gave me the keys to the premises, and told me that in such and such a room I would find three cabinets, and if they were any good, I could have them. I guessed that they were proper mineral cabinets, but didn't know the history at that point. In fact I'm not sure I knew of Russell at all at that point. I had only been collecting for 10 years, most of that time in the Army serving in Germany.
When I saw them I was appalled! There are 30 drawers to each cabinet (15 per side). The drawers consisted of (obviously) front, back and two sides. These are a yellow wood, and even a local (well respected) hardwood merchant (Oskar Windybank) couldn't identify what wood, past a guess that it was a slow growing fruit tree. The bases were two sheets of oak fitted in a groove with quartering around the inside of the drawer. The carcase is a mahogany. Each drawer is individually hand-made with dove tails on the corners. Out of the 60 drawers they will only fit one way - and they were basically all in pieces. It was an enormous jigsaw. The other cabinet was all mahogany, so easy to identify, and surprisingly most drawers on that were intact. It took me a long time (and a lot of wood glue) to restore it even to its present condition.
I got bits of info from several sources. Ollie was able to tell me a little, I got more from Brian Woods who used to run the shop in Dulcote Quarry, and there were a couple of others, but just who escapes me. I remember Brian because in his (very dusty, dirty) shop there was a small chest of drawers with yellow drawers and mahogany carcase (a miniature version although one sided of about 8 drawers of mine). Really what caught my attention was the dove-tailing (after matching around 240 of them I was becoming a bit of an expert!). Brian started the ball rolling really when he said that it came from Parkinsons place (only 10 miles away) and that it had belonged to Russell. By this time I knew of Sir Arthur. I went back to Ollie and she said she had heard that, but that Parkinson had found them on a skip outside the old Geology Museum in London, asked for them and they had arrived in Doulting. She didn't remember how they actually got there. But someone who knew Brian Woods (and I have a feeling he is/was an expert on the Mendips) told me that they were the original cabinets made for Sir Arthur Russell, which he very quickly grew out of, and had more made, which are now in the Russell Room at the Natural History Museum. These he gave to his friend Dr Kingsbury (?) who used them until his death, when they were bequeathed to the Geology Museum with the collection. There was a label in the bottom of one of the drawers which was stamped 'GEOLOGY MUSEUM, KENSINGTON' I believe.”
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Our story should perhaps conclude with the publication of “Arthurite a new copper-iron arsenate from Cornwall” by R. Davis and M.H. Hey in September 1964, described from Hingston Down Consols, based on a specimen collected by Sir Arthur some ten years previously in 1954, and submitted for examination. The mineral was named jointly for Sir Arthur Russell and his great friend Arthur W.G. Kingsbury. http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_33/33-266-937.pdf . It seems a strange quirk of fate that the paper was first read at the Mineralogical Society meeting on 12th March 1964, just a couple of weeks after Sir Arthur had died on 24th February 1964.
His memory of course lives on, in the name of The Russell Society, his many publications, and through his magnificent collection and research papers, now preserved at the Natural History Museum in London. It is often said of people that “we shall not see his like again”, but in the case of Sir Arthur Russell that is almost certainly the case.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the following people who have contributed images or information for this project. Rob & Jan Bellamy, Richard Braithwaite, Brian Craik-Smith, Jesse Fisher, David Green, Ben Grguric, Alan Hart, Neil Hubbard, Frank Ince, Brian Lloyd, Darryl Lundy, Josephine Mews, Mike Rumsey, the late Bob King, Mark King, Sally King, Jane Robb, Roger Robinson, Mike Rumsey, Ian Russell, Sir Mervyn Russell, Bob Symes, John Willmouth and the various on-line resources and websites mentioned throughout the text.
I hope that you have found this “scrapbook” of information about Sir Arthur Russell interesting, and that it will perhaps encourage you to research some of his publications, localities and /or specimens. I would be pleased to receive any additional information or images relating to Sir Arthur Russell and his collection.
Check out the full version of this article (with pictures) here https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.14/bhe.28d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/An-Appreciation-of-Sir-Arthur-Russell.pdf
This article is an abridged version of a longer electronic publication (which includes many previously unpublished images)available from the Russell Society website https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.14/bhe.28d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/An-Appreciation-of-Sir-Arthur-Russell.pdf
INTRODUCTION
Sir Arthur Edward Ian Montague Russell (1878-1964) 6th Baronet, of Swallowfield Park, Reading, Berkshire, was perhaps the greatest British mineral collector of the 20th century. His tenacity and dogged determination in seeking out the very best specimens for his collection was comparable to the reputation of the Canadian Mounties in always “getting their man”.
The article makes extensive use of hyperlinks to direct the reader to additional information and other sources, rather than reproducing extensive verbatim transcripts of material published elsewhere.
A full obituary of Sir Arthur, by his great friend Arthur Kingsbury, was published in the Mineralogical Magazine (1966) Vol.35 : p673-677. http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_35/35-273-673.pdf
A brief overview of his life has also been provided by Alan Hart and Bob Symes (1991) in the Journal of the Russell Society, 4 (1). Available here http://www.mindat.org/getjrs.php?i=04-1
There are various on-line resources which provide an insight to Sir Arthur’s long and interesting life, and a good place to start is the Mineralogical Record label archive http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=750 which, whilst reproducing much of the information from Kingsbury’s obituary of Russell, also includes good images of a range of Russell’s labels.
Wikipedia also has a short summary of information about Sir Arthur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Russell,_6th_Baronet and includes links to biographical details about some of the people whose collections he gradually incorporated into his own, such as Philip Rashleigh, John Hawkins, Robert Were Fox, Alfred Fox, Sir Maziere Brady, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth, John Ruskin, Arthur Champernowne, J. H. Collins and Samuel Henson.
More recently, Jane Robb, as part of her studies for an MRes in Heritage Science from University College London, used social science techniques to understand the perceived value (i.e. educational, historical, uniqueness…) of geological collections in museums. She undertook her research based around the Russell Collection at the Natural History Museum. You can read more about this here http://geoheritagescience.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/sir-arthur-russell-and-the-preservation-of-a-national-collection/
Jane says that “These insights were used to improve collections care in museums, but also to enhance my understanding of how people relate to science – knowledge useful when engaging audiences in science education.”
The results of the project have been published in The Geological Curator Volume 9, No.10. December 2013.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
The Peerage http://thepeerage.com/p7928.htm provides genealogical links and information to Sir Arthur’s family and descendants, and it was through help from Darryl Lundy, the compiler of this fantastic website, who is coincidentally based in Wellington, New Zealand, that I managed to trace one of Sir Arthur’s sons (Sir Mervyn Russell), and enjoy the privilege of meeting him and his son Ian back in 2012.
Sir Mervyn recalled going on field trips with his father (Sir Arthur), travelling by train and visiting mines all over the British Isles as a boy during school holidays when he was about 11 or 12, and that he was employed to wriggle into places that Sir Arthur could not reach, to collect specimens. Mervyn had good eyesight and often found good specimens and told me that he was well rewarded! He also carried out various curatorial tasks for Sir Arthur, including mounting specimens and writing out catalogue cards. Apparently, Sir Arthur used to collect specimens for himself, and “a museum” at the same time, and some of the mine managers used to get a little fed up as he would come back looking for another sample for “another museum”. Sir Mervyn also told me that Sir Arthur used to get paid by some of the mining companies, to provide technical advice. Sir Mervyn Russell himself attended the Camborne School of Mines and worked for a time in mines in both Wales and Cornwall. Apparently Sir Arthur was not enamoured of having russellite named after him, and simply hated having his photo taken (which is presumably why there are relatively few surviving images of him). He did however enjoy a passion for steam engines and railways. There was a pretty constant stream of visitors to Swallowfield to meet Sir Arthur, and to examine his mineral collection, with some pretty famous people amongst them. Mervyn told me that Sir Arthur did pretty much everything himself with regard to the collection and that it was stored in large cabinets with his library being in a separate room. Sir Arthur evidently spent almost all of his time, whilst at home, in the mineral room wing of Swallowfield.
The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford holds certain Russell family papers given by Sir Arthur Russell in 1952 http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/russell/russell.html
and
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/russell2/russell2.html
Josephine also kindly provided the following extract from the memoranda of his mother, Lady Constance Charlotte Elizabeth Russell, “Mano's Memories and Memoranda”, page 85.
“My second son was born at Folkestone, Mr Lewis attending for the event. He was christened at the church close to us, and his God-parents were H.S.H. Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Lord Lorne (afterwards Duke of Argyll) and Lady Wynford (a daughter of my father’s cousin Lady Georgina Baillie). He was given the names of Arthur Edward Ian Montague, the last of these names being the Christian name of Lady Wynford. He was unfortunate in his first nurse: she was called Corkran, and came from Devonshire very highly recommended, but there was some mystery about her and I had to get rid of her. After that he had a charming one called “Primmer,” but she left me in 1880 to marry “Hoskins,” then I had an equally nice one – “Smith,” who left after six years to marry “Payne,” followed by a bonnie braw Scotch girl – Christina – who married “Bliss!” The last nurse I had was Mrs Thomas, from Cornwall. We gave my second son the name of Arthur, after my only brother who died at Swallowfield in 1876. I have said little or nothing about him hitherto, as I hope to write a separate sketch about him.”
SWALLOWFIELD PARK
Swallowfield Park is a 17th Century Grade II listed mansion dating back to 1678. The house was designed by architect William Talman, better known for his English baroque design at Chatsworth House (home of another famous mineral collector!), and a student of Sir Christopher Wren. The house is situated in 25 acres of traditionally maintained parkland, at the junction of the River Blackwater and River Loddon, and the private grounds offer a pleasant English riverside environment with water meadows, a bridge, lawns, pathways, ancient trees and a long approach driveway. The small red brick bridge over the River Blackwater bears the date 1722 and the initial of a subsequent owner, Thomas “Diamond” Pitt, great grandfather of former Prime Minister, William Pitt. In 1820 the house was purchased by Sir Henry Russell, in whose family it remained until 1965. Sir Henry’s second son, Charles Russell, was MP for Reading from 1830-1837 and played an important part in pioneering the Great Western Railway.
A detailed history of Swallowfield has been provided by Lady Constance Russell “Swallowfield and its Owners” (1901), and a copy is available on-line here https://archive.org/details/swallowfieldand00russgoog
For readers interested to learn more, there is also an
interesting socio-economic historical case study of
Swallowfield, available on-line from the University of Warwick here http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/research/eicah/houses/swallowfieldpark/swallowfield.pdf
Swallowfield Park was sold, upon Sir Arthur’s death, to the Mutual Householders Association, and subsequently divided into 34 apartments. The MHA evolved into the Country Houses Association which sadly went into administration in 2003. The property was later acquired by Sunley Holdings of Berkeley Square, and after several years of refurbishment there are now 29 apartments, sold on 125 year leases. You can take a virtual tour of the house here http://www.sunleyheritage.co.uk/SP_index.cfm but please remember that the house and grounds are private property and there is no public access.
THE MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY
The Mineralogical Society was a hugely important part of Sir Arthur Russell’s life. He was elected to membership at the meeting on 18th November 1902 http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_13/13-61-xxvii.pdf , and was a very regular participant at Society Meetings in London, often exhibiting specimens, and reading papers (many, but not all of which were subsequently published in the pages of the Mineralogical Magazine).
The Mineralogical Society has generously digitised, and made freely available, an entire archive of the Mineralogical Magazine from Vol.1 No.1 (1876) through to Vol. 63 (1999). This is a fabulous resource, and means that almost all of Sir Arthur’s published work is freely available on-line. (He also published a paper in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (1952) on Philip Rashleigh and another on John Hawkins (in 1954), in the same Journal, but these do not appear to be available in a digital format on-line).
The articles listed below can be accessed via direct hyperlinks in the full version of the article. Sir Arthur is the sole author unless otherwise listed:-
On the Occurrence of Linarite and Caledonite in County Wicklow Mineralogical Magazine (1907) 14 : 348-349.
Note on the Mines and Minerals of the Silvermines District, Co. Tipperary Mineralogical Magazine (1907) 14 : 350-353.
On the Occurrence of the Rare Mineral Carminite in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1910) 15 : 285-287.
Notes on the Occurrence of Zeolites in Cornwall and Devon Mineralogical Magazine (1910) 15 : 377-384.
On the Occurrence of Phenacite in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1911) 16 : 55-62.
Prehnite from the Lizard District, Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1912) 16 : 217-218.
Notes on the Occurrence of Dundasite in Derbyshire and Co. Galway Mineralogical Magazine (1912) 16 : 272-273.
An Account of the Minerals Found in the Virtuous Lady Mine, near Tavistock Mineralogical Magazine (1913) 17 : 1-14.
Notes on the Occurrence of Bertrandite at Some New Localities in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1913) 17 : 15-21.
On the Occurrence of Phenacite and Scheelite at Wheal Cock, St. Just, Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1920) 19 : 19-22.
On the Occurrence of Cotunnite, Anglesite, Leadhillite, and Galena on Fused Lead from the Wreck of the Fire-Ship ‘Firebrand’ in Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1920) 19 : 64-68.
Topaz from Cornwall, with an Account of Its Localities Mineralogical Magazine (1924) 20 : 221-236.
A Notice of the Occurrence of Native Arsenic in Cornwall; of Bismuthinite at Shap, Westmorland; and of Smaltite and Niccolite at Coniston, Lancashire Mineralogical Magazine (1925) 20 : 299-304.
Mineralogical Society (Instituted February 3, 1876.), Jubilee Celebration (September, 1926.) (See pages 124-128 – Southern Field Excursion led by Mr Arthur Russell) Mineralogical Magazine (1926) 21 : 99-148. (This also includes a nice group photo of the party at the Roche Rock, Cornwall, with both Arthur Russell and Sir Charles Russell figured).
Arthur Russell and Prof. A. Hutchinson On Laurionite and Associated Minerals from Cornwall
Mineralogical Magazine (1927) 21 : 221-228.
On the Occurrence of the Rare Mineral Nadorite in Cornwall, and of Beraunite in Co. Cork, Ireland Mineralogical Magazine (1927) 21 : 272-275.
Notice of an Occurrence of Niccolite and Ullmannite at the Settlingstones Mine, Fourstones, Northumberland; and of Serpierite at Ross Island Mine, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland Mineralogical Magazine (1927) 21 : 383-387.
On the Occurrence of Native Gold at Hope's Nose, Torquay, Devonshire Mineralogical Magazine (1929) 22 : 159-162.
Notes on the Occurrence of Fluorite in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire Mineralogical Magazine (1936) 24 : 307-317.
Baryte Crystals from the Manvers Main Colliery, Wath-Upon-Dearne, Near Rotherham, Yorkshire Mineralogical Magazine (1936) 24 : 318-320.
Notes on the Occurrence of Wulfenite at Brandy Gill, Cumberland, and of Leadhillite at Drumruck Mine, Kirkcudbrightshire Mineralogical Magazine (1936) 24 : 321-323.
Max H. Hey, F. A. Bannister and Arthur Russell Russellite, a New British Mineral (includes pp49-55 The occurrence and associations of russellite by A.Russell) Mineralogical Magazine (1938) 25 : 41-55.
Notes on Some Minerals Either New or Rare to Britain Mineralogical Magazine (1944) 27 : 1-10.
An Account of the Struy Lead Mines, Inverness-Shire, and of Wulfenite, Harmotome, and Other Minerals Which Occur There Mineralogical Magazine 1946 27 : 147-154.
Baryte and Fluorite from Loch Bruicheach, Beauly, Inverness-Shire Mineralogical Magazine (1946) 27 : 155-156.
On Rhodonite and Tephroite from Treburland Manganese Mine, Altarnun, Cornwall; and on Rhodonite from Other Localities in Cornwall and Devonshire Mineralogical Magazine (1946) 27 : 221-235.
On Rashleighite, a New Mineral from Cornwall, Intermediate between Turquoise and Chalcosiderite Mineralogical Magazine (1948) 28 : 353-358.
The Wherry Mine, Penzance, Its History and its Mineral Productions Mineralogical Magazine (1949) 28 : 517-533.
John Henry Heuland Mineralogical Magazine (1950) 29 : 395-405.
Sir Arthur Russell and E. A. Vincent On the Occurrence of Varlamoffite (Partially Hydrated Stannic Oxide) in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1952) 29 : 817-826.
On the Occurrence of Turquoise in Cornwall Mineralogical Magazine (1952) 29 : 909-912.
The Rev. William Gregor (1761–1817), Discoverer of Titanium Mineralogical Magazine (1955) 30 : 617-624.
In addition to his many published papers, Russell was a regular exhibitor at, and contributor to, meetings of the Mineralogical Society. Thanks to the superb digitised archive of early editions of the Mineralogical Magazine, which include reports of meetings and extracts from Council Minutes, it is possible to gain an appreciation of quite how active Sir Arthur was, and to get a sense of his huge enthusiasm for the subject of minerals and everything associated with them. The following snippets have been pieced together from a trawl through the archive. One can almost sense the excitement (both that of Sir Arthur, and any potential participants at the meetings) at what he might be about to produce or lay out on the table at any given time – there must have been a considerable element of “fun” in all of this, as well as academic rigour. I understand from Bob Symes, that on “Min.Soc.” meeting days, Sir Arthur would almost invariably turn up at the Museum in the late morning to meet with Peter Embrey and Arthur Kingsbury, and any “visiting dignatories” from the mineralogical world who might be “in town”. They would then go to lunch at Peter’s favourite Italian restaurant near the South Kensington Underground Station.
It is recorded in the Minutes of the Council Meeting, that Mr Arthur Edward Ian Montagu [sic] Russell was elected a member of the Mineralogical Society on 18th November 1902. Elected at the same meeting were Mr Herbert Stanley Jeavons, Mr Andrew Gibb Maitland, Mr John Smith Flett, Mr John Allen Howe and Mr Frederic Philip Mennell.
The first entry I can find relating to Arthur Russell relates to the “Anniversary Meeting” of the Mineralogical Society on 15th November 1904, “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited a large specimen of “babel-quartz” which he had found at great Work mine, Breage, Cornwall.” This was followed by the General Meeting held on 31st January 1905, at which“Mr Arthur Russell exhibited a specimen of phenakite and one of aurichalcite from Cornish localities.”
Mr Arthur Russell read a paper “On some new mineral localities in Cornwall and Devon” at the General Meeting on 15th March 1905, and the following year, at the General Meeting held on 20th March 1906, with twenty-four Members and one Visitor present, Mr Arthur Russell read a paper “On the occurrence of Caledonite and Linarite in County Wicklow”, and in addition to specimens shown by the authors in illustration of their papers … “Mr. Arthur Russell exhibited crystals of Brookite recently collected by him at Tremadoc.”
At the general Meeting on 19th March 1907, the following papers were read …. “On the minerals of the Silvermines district, Co. Tipperary: by Mr Arthur Russell”, and “Specimens were exhibited by Mr Butler [F.H.] and Mr Russell in illustration of their papers”, but his next “appearance” was not until the “Anniversary Meeting” on 17th November 1908, which saw Russell presenting a paper “On the occurrence of the rare mineral Carminite in Cornwall.”
Mention is made of a display of “… other minerals submitted by Mr. Arthur Russell” at the General Meeting on 26th January 1909, but no details are given.
At the General Meeting on 21st March 1911, Russell presented a paper “Notes on the occurrence of Dundasite in Derbyshire and Co. Galway, and of Bertrandite in Cornwall”, and later that year at the general Meeting on 13th June 1911, Russell presented a paper “On Prehnite from the Lizard District”, and this too was supported by an exhibit of specimens.
In 1912, at the General Meeting on 12th March Russell presented a paper “Notes on the minerals and mineral localities of Shropshire”, and it is noted that “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited in illustration of [his] paper a fine series of specimens recently collected in Shropshire.”
The “Anniversary Meeting” on 12th November 1912 saw Russell presenting what is probably one of the finest Topographical Mineralogy papers ever written “An account of the minerals found in the Virtuous Lady mine, near Tavistock”, and it is further noted that “Mr Russell exhibited a fine series of specimens from the Virtuous Lady mine in illustration of his paper”, and it is noted in the following Council Meeting that “Half the cost of the three plates illustrating his paper on the minerals found at the Virtuous Lady mine was defrayed by Mr. Arthur Russell.”
At the General Meeting on 11th March 1913 Mr Arthur Russell read a paper on “The minerals and mineral-localities of Montgomeryshire” and exhibited “mineral specimens from Montgomeryshire in illustration of his paper”, and he was back at the “Anniversary Meeting” on 13th November 1913, where Russell presented a paper “Notes on the minerals occurring in the neighbourhood of Meldon, near Okehampton, Devonshire”, and at this meeting “Specimens of minerals from Meldon, Devonshire, were exhibited by Mr A. Russell and Mr F.P. Mennell.” Arthur Russell also exhibited “Specimens of Heulandite and Prehnite from Wales.”
At the General Meeting on 20th June 1916, Russell presented a paper “Note on a new occurrence of gold in Cornwall”, followed at the “Anniversary Meeting” on 5th November 1916, by the presentation of a paper on“The chromite deposits in the island of Unst, Shetlands”, supported by a display of “a fine series of minerals from Unst by Lieut. Russell.”
At the General Meeting on 10th February 1922, Russell presented two papers – the first, jointly with Dr A. Hutchinson, “On laurionite and paralaurionite from Cornwall”; and the second as sole author “On a discovery of pitchblende at Kingswood mine, Buckfastleigh, Devon.” These papers were supported by a display - “minerals from Cornwall were exhibited by Mr Arthur Russell and Dr. Hutchinson in illustration of their paper.”
At the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 3rd November 1925, Russell presented a paper on“New British occurrences of alstonite and barytocalcite”, and supported this with a display of specimens. There was then something of a lull in his reported activities until, at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 4th November 1930, Russell presented the first of a series of five papers on “An account of British Mineral Collectors and Dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries”. [His manuscript notes which presumably formed the basis of these papers, are preserved in the Mineralogy Library of the Natural History Museum, and were used extensively by Cooper (2006) in the underpinning research for his magnum opus “Robbing the Sparry
Garniture” now available for the bargain price of only $10 from http://www.minrec.org/bookdetail.asp?id=44 ].
Some six years later, at the General Meeting on 9th June 1931, he continued this theme with a paper on “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 2], and he followed this up at the “Anniversary Meeting” on 3rd November 1931 - “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited a fine nugget of gold from County Wicklow, which he had recently acquired.”
Russell had evidently committed a lot of time and effort to this line of historical research and at the General Meeting on 19th January 1932 he presented “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 3], shortly followed at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 1st November 1932 by two further papers “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 4]; and “Note on occurrence of witherite at the Morrison North Pit, Stanley, Co. Durham”, but apparently without any supporting exhibit.
The minutes of the Council Meeting held on 15th June 1933 record that “The Secretary reported that a very successful excursion was made to Swallowfield Park to see Mr. Arthur Russell’s collection of British minerals. This was attended by twenty-four members and guests, and the thanks of the Society were conveyed to Sir Charles and Mr Arthur Russell”, and a further note marking this event appeared in the Annual Report of Council for 1933, where the date of the visit is stated to be 20th May and it is said the party “spent a most interesting afternoon inspecting Mr Russell’s unrivalled collection of British minerals.”
Russell read a paper at the “General (Anniversary) Meeting” on 9th November 1933 “On the occurrence of harmotome at several new localities in the British Isles”, but on this occasion it appears there was no accompanying exhibit, and in the Spring of the following year, at the General Meeting on 15th March 1934 Russell delivered what was to be the final instalment of his fascinating study “An account of British mineral collectors and dealers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (continued)” [Part 5].
The General Meeting on 24th January 1935 saw Russell reading another of his particularly interesting topographic papers “Notes on the occurrence of fluorite in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire”, and at the General Meeting on 14th March 1935, the displays included “A fine stalagmite of calcite from a cave at Cheddar, Mendip Hills: exhibited by Mr. Arthur Russell” (although collecting speleothems would, of course, be frowned upon nowadays).
At the General Meeting on 30th January 1936 “Mr Arthur Russell exhibited specimens of withamite from the new road in Glencoe and of almandine from Loch Garve, Ross-shire, collected in 1935.”
At the General Meeting on 11th March 1937 Russell read a paper “On the occurrence of turquoise in Cornwall”, this being accompanied by “Specimens … exhibited in illustration of the paper.”
The General (Anniversary) Meeting held on 4th November 1937 saw a bumper display of “Minerals from Castle-an-Dinas mine, Cornwall, including cassiterite, topaz, arsenopyrite, native bismuth, turquoise, scorodite on wavellite, and russellite; also bismuthinite from St. Wenn, and beryl and cassiterite from St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall”, by Mr Arthur Russell. The meeting also included the reading of a paper by Dr F.H.Bannister and Dr M.H.Hey “Russellite, a new British mineral.”
The General Meeting held on 10th March 1938 was treated to an exhibit by Mr. Arthur Russell of “A manuscript catalogue of Philip Rashleigh’s collection of minerals with entries made by him between 1784 and 1804, on loan from the Truro Museum. Pages were shown containing descriptions of chalcophyllite, connellite and pharmacosiderite, written some fifteen years before these minerals were named.” Russell also put on a display of minerals “Specimens of hemimorphite from Millclose mine, Derbyshire; cassiterite from Minas Vella, Portugal; apatite and quartz from Bovey Tracey, Devonshire; withamite from Glen Coe, Scotland; wollastonite and idocrase from Okehampton, Devonshire; and chalcopyrite from Wanlockhead, Scotland.”
Russell’s next exhibits, at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 3rd November 1938, included “A magnificent polished slab of rhodonite from Pencrebar, Callington, Cornwall; and a large crystal of ilmenite in schist from Craig of Dhoune, Glen Effock, Forfarshire”, followed by a display with an international theme at the General Meeting on 9th March 1939, of “Minerals from Mina da Panasqueira, Fundao, Beira Baixa, Portugal”, this being mounted jointly with Dr W.R.Jones. He also read another of his landmark papers “The Wherry mine, Penzance, its history and its mineral production”.
The General (Anniversary) Meeting on 9th November 1939 saw Russell, perhaps at the pinnacle of his mineralogical career, being elected President of the Mineralogical Society, and on this occasion he “exhibited specimens of garnet, wollastonite, kyanite, zircon and magnetite which he had recently collected in Co. Donegal”.
At the General Meeting on 25th January 1940, Russell read a paper on a subject close to his heart “Notes on the occurrence of fluorite in the west Cumberland iron mines and in the Lake District of Cumberland and Westmorland”, but seemingly without the now “expected” accompanying display of specimens.
His new responsibilities as President did little to slow down his field activities, and at the General Meeting on 23rd January 1941 he read a paper “Note on some minerals either new or rare to Britain.”
This was followed at the General Meeting on 5th June 1941 by “Notes on some minerals new or rare to Britain. Part 2: Orpiment.”
Russell’s term of office came to an end at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 5th November 1942, with Dr W.F.P. McLintock proposing a vote of thanks to the retiring President and Ordinary Members of Council, which was seconded by Dr G.F. Herbert Smith. In his “parting shot”,“Mr Arthur Russell, vacating the chair in favour of his successor, Mr F.N.Ashcroft, paid tribute to the latter’s untiring service for the Society.” Russell’s contribution to the meeting on this occasion was an exhibit of “a banded replacement of fluorite in limestone from Co. Durham.”
At the General Meeting on 24th Janauary 1946, the then President, Dr W.Campbell Smith “exhibited specimens of pyrochroite, ganophyllite and native copper from Benallt mine, Rhiw, Caernarvonshire”, and one imagines that Russell (now Sir Arthur) might well have made enquiries as to how he could get samples of these minerals!
Sir Arthur’s exhibit was of “blende from Liruwie-n-Kano, Northern Nigeria, and from Trevaunance mine, St. Agnes, Cornwall; stannite and arsenopyrite from Cligga Mine, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall; beryl from Hawks Wood mine, North Hill, Cornwall; rock-cruystal from Dungiven, Co. Londonderry; and garnet, wollastonite, and diopside from Aphort, Aran Island, Co. Donegal.”
At the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 7th November 1946, Sir Arthur put on a display of “A selection of the original drawings, plates, and manuscript of Philip Rashleigh’s “Specimens of British Minerals”, part I, 1797, and part II, 1802”, and also “A small complete stone which fell in the roadway in Adare village, Co. Limerick, during the meteorite shower on September 10th, 1813. He was unfortunately unable to exhibit the largest stone, said to weigh 65 lb., for which he had been searching during the past three summers and had at last traced only to be forestalled by a few weeks by another collector” [C’est la vie!]
At the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 10th November 1949, Sir Arthur read another of his most interesting topographical papers “An account of the antimony mines of Great Britain and Ireland and of the minerals found therein”, which has never been published, but of which, a manuscript copy survives in the archives of the Natural History Museum, London.
The Excerpt Minutes of the Council meeting held on 7th October 1948 include a note that “The President commented upon the success of the Society’s visit, with foreign guests from the International Geological Congress, to Sir Arthur Russell’s collection of minerals at Swallowfield Park, Reading. It was decided that the cost of transport from London be borne by the Society, and that a letter of thanks be sent to Sir Arthur Russell for his generous hospitality.”
The Anniversary Meeting held on 1st November 1951 included a paper by Sir Arthur Russell and Dr E.A. Vincent “On the occurrence of varlamoffite in Cornwall”.
At the General Meeting on 24th March 1955, Sir Arthur read a paper “Additional notes on rhodonite deposits in Devonshire”, and later that year (at the Council Meeting on 9th June), “The gratitude of the Council was expressed to Sir Arthur Russell for his most generous offer to bequeath to the Society a valuable collection of early works on mineralogy and mining, with special reference to Cornwall.” Coincidentally, at the same meeting (9th June 1955), Sir Arthur presented (jointly with Frank Claringbull) a paper on “Ceruleite, CuAl4(AsO4)2(OH)8.4H2O, from Wheal Gorland, Gwennap, Cornwall.”
The last recorded active involvement of Sir Arthur at Mineralogical Society Meetings, appears to have been the reading of a paper on “Cornubite, a new mineral from Cornwall”, presented jointly with Frank Claringbull and Max Hey at the General (Anniversary) Meeting on 7th November 1957, aged 79.
SIR ARTHUR RUSSELL’S BEQUEST
Sir Arthur Russell’s Will directed that his collection should be given to the British Museum (Natural History) – now the Natural History Museum.
The task of collating, organising and transporting Sir Arthur Russell’s collection from Swallowfield Park to South Kensington, fell to Bob Symes and (the late) John Fuller. They stayed locally to Swallowfield, in “digs”, and worked Monday-Friday for about 6 weeks, packing all of the specimens into the Museum’s huge stockpile of wooden ammunition boxes. Vast amounts of packaging material were consumed – paper, cotton waste and the like (long before “Bubble Wrap”!), and they were instructed not to rush and to make sure that the specimens were well-protected. At the end of the packing phase a removals company came and moved the collection by lorry to South Kensington. Bob recalls that their boss, Frank Claringbull, made several visits during the project to see how they were getting on, and that Peter Embrey and also Reg Parkinson (mineral dealer of Shepton Mallett) called in as well from time to time. Parkinson got on very well with Sir Arthur and had been a regular visitor to Swallowfield. The “scene of the action” was the two main “mineral rooms” towards the right hand end of the brick-built wing of the house as viewed from the front (seen in Fig.24 below), and this was where the main collection, and some literature also, was housed in fine wooden cabinets (as now seen in the Russell Room). There was another room full of rather battered old cabinets, housing Sir Arthur’s duplicate material, empty storage trays, offprints of published papers and the like.
The “Russell Room”, high in the east tower of the Natural History Museum in London, is, for many, the pinnacle of British Mineralogy. It has the aura and feel of an “inner sanctum” and it is indeed a treasure trove of all that is finest in specimen mineralogy. The privileged few who have entered this repository over the years to study and research Sir Arthur’s specimens will all have been over-awed by the breadth and depth of his collection, and the sheer determination of the man who needed “the best” of everything to do with British Mineralogy, and worked tirelessly to achieve this goal.
The range and pedigree of the collections he acquired over some seventy years of active collecting is quite simply amazing. Of course, it must have helped to have had the financial means, and the time, to pursue such a quest, but the dogged perseverance and sheer tenacity of the man shine through above all else. Collectors today can only dream of the sort of opportunities which presented themselves to Sir Arthur, and those who take time to review the pages of the Mineralogical Magazine, and gain an appreciation of Russell’s contemporaries, revealed by those pages, will come to appreciate that he indeed lived in a “golden age” for British specimen mineralogy.
And Finally ….I’d like to share with you a story related to me by Brian Craik-Smith, who, back in 1983, had the good fortune to purchase a mid-19th century walnut-veneered mahogany mineral cabinet (with 40 apple drawers and ebony handles) for the princely sum of twenty pounds. Many of the stuck drawers were to prove more interesting than the cabinet itself, which was reportedly one from Swallowfield Park, purchased by the company Rayner of 100 New Bond Street, London. [Interestingly this aligns with information received quite independently from Richard Braithwaite (see above)].
The drawers turned out to contain a wide selection of old labels (and some accompanying specimens) – the sort of serendipitous outcome which most of us can only dream about. Brian has done some detective work and analysis on various of the labels and plans to publish an article on his findings in due course.
In the course of discussing this with Brian, he happened to mention that John Willmouth had also acquired a number of cabinets, and so I thought I should follow that up too. John kindly provided the following notes.
“I was actually given 3 of them by Ollie Fisher (surviving partner of R.F. Parkinson, Doulting, near Shepton Mallet), but the third had dry rot in the carcase, and I had to burn it. However, the drawers of that one survived and are now incorporated into a couple of cabinets made by a friend and they look superb!
My partner used to live next door to Ollie Fisher in Doulting when I first met her, and in passing (she knew nothing of Ollies involvement with minerals) she mentioned that I had minerals ('rocks and bits of brick and concrete' as she so charmingly referred to them in those days!) everywhere and need a place to keep them (and it was a comparatively small collection then!). She was told by Ollie to have me present myself to her, which I did, and was closely examined on a rather small range of common minerals. I came to realise that Ollie knew a lot about a few minerals. It was at this time she told me that she had started as a part-timer with Parkinson some 35 years previously and finished up a partner in the company, surviving RFP.
She then gave me the keys to the premises, and told me that in such and such a room I would find three cabinets, and if they were any good, I could have them. I guessed that they were proper mineral cabinets, but didn't know the history at that point. In fact I'm not sure I knew of Russell at all at that point. I had only been collecting for 10 years, most of that time in the Army serving in Germany.
When I saw them I was appalled! There are 30 drawers to each cabinet (15 per side). The drawers consisted of (obviously) front, back and two sides. These are a yellow wood, and even a local (well respected) hardwood merchant (Oskar Windybank) couldn't identify what wood, past a guess that it was a slow growing fruit tree. The bases were two sheets of oak fitted in a groove with quartering around the inside of the drawer. The carcase is a mahogany. Each drawer is individually hand-made with dove tails on the corners. Out of the 60 drawers they will only fit one way - and they were basically all in pieces. It was an enormous jigsaw. The other cabinet was all mahogany, so easy to identify, and surprisingly most drawers on that were intact. It took me a long time (and a lot of wood glue) to restore it even to its present condition.
I got bits of info from several sources. Ollie was able to tell me a little, I got more from Brian Woods who used to run the shop in Dulcote Quarry, and there were a couple of others, but just who escapes me. I remember Brian because in his (very dusty, dirty) shop there was a small chest of drawers with yellow drawers and mahogany carcase (a miniature version although one sided of about 8 drawers of mine). Really what caught my attention was the dove-tailing (after matching around 240 of them I was becoming a bit of an expert!). Brian started the ball rolling really when he said that it came from Parkinsons place (only 10 miles away) and that it had belonged to Russell. By this time I knew of Sir Arthur. I went back to Ollie and she said she had heard that, but that Parkinson had found them on a skip outside the old Geology Museum in London, asked for them and they had arrived in Doulting. She didn't remember how they actually got there. But someone who knew Brian Woods (and I have a feeling he is/was an expert on the Mendips) told me that they were the original cabinets made for Sir Arthur Russell, which he very quickly grew out of, and had more made, which are now in the Russell Room at the Natural History Museum. These he gave to his friend Dr Kingsbury (?) who used them until his death, when they were bequeathed to the Geology Museum with the collection. There was a label in the bottom of one of the drawers which was stamped 'GEOLOGY MUSEUM, KENSINGTON' I believe.”
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Our story should perhaps conclude with the publication of “Arthurite a new copper-iron arsenate from Cornwall” by R. Davis and M.H. Hey in September 1964, described from Hingston Down Consols, based on a specimen collected by Sir Arthur some ten years previously in 1954, and submitted for examination. The mineral was named jointly for Sir Arthur Russell and his great friend Arthur W.G. Kingsbury. http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_33/33-266-937.pdf . It seems a strange quirk of fate that the paper was first read at the Mineralogical Society meeting on 12th March 1964, just a couple of weeks after Sir Arthur had died on 24th February 1964.
His memory of course lives on, in the name of The Russell Society, his many publications, and through his magnificent collection and research papers, now preserved at the Natural History Museum in London. It is often said of people that “we shall not see his like again”, but in the case of Sir Arthur Russell that is almost certainly the case.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the following people who have contributed images or information for this project. Rob & Jan Bellamy, Richard Braithwaite, Brian Craik-Smith, Jesse Fisher, David Green, Ben Grguric, Alan Hart, Neil Hubbard, Frank Ince, Brian Lloyd, Darryl Lundy, Josephine Mews, Mike Rumsey, the late Bob King, Mark King, Sally King, Jane Robb, Roger Robinson, Mike Rumsey, Ian Russell, Sir Mervyn Russell, Bob Symes, John Willmouth and the various on-line resources and websites mentioned throughout the text.
I hope that you have found this “scrapbook” of information about Sir Arthur Russell interesting, and that it will perhaps encourage you to research some of his publications, localities and /or specimens. I would be pleased to receive any additional information or images relating to Sir Arthur Russell and his collection.
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