Patricia Russell, Countess Russell (1910–2004), was the third wife of philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

and a significant contributor to his book, ''

A History of Western Philosophy ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a 1946 book by British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). A survey of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the early 20th century, each major division of the book is prefaced by ...

''. Lady Russell was born Marjorie Helen Spence in 1910. As her parents had always wanted a boy, she was nicknamed 'Peter,' a name she retained throughout her life. She met Bertrand Russell in 1930, when he was 58 and she was a 20-year-old undergraduate at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, hired by Russell's second wife,

Dora Black Dora Winifred Russell, Countess Russell ( Black; 3 April 1894 – 31 May 1986) was a British author, a feminist and socialist campaigner, and the second wife of the philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a campaigner for contraception and pea ...

, as a governess. The two began an affair, and they were married at the

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother (Western), River Rother, inland from the English Channel and north of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first reco ...

register office on 18 January 1936. They had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, the 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

party. They had an acrimonious separation in 1949. Patricia was a member of the first board of the

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

Development Corporation, serving from 1947 to 1950.Gibberd et al. p. 378

References

Sources

Ray Monk Ray Monk (born 15 February 1957) is a British biographer who is renowned for his biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton, where he ...

, ''Bertrand Russell. The Ghost of Madness.'' New York: Free Press. 2000. * Gibberd, Frederick et al. ''Harlow: the story of a new town.''

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

: Publications for Companies. 1980. * Russell, Bertrand. ''A History of Western Philosophy''. London: Unwin Paperbacks. 1984.

External links

* '' Details of 12 portraits, 8 of them reproduced''

References

Sources

External links

Further reading