Sheridan William Robin Russell (23 March 1900 – 9 April 1991) was a cellist, medical doctor, and patron of the arts. He was Head Almoner at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and founded the Paintings in Hospitals charity. [1] [2]
He was the younger son of the professor of singing and the San Carlo and later Boston Opera director Henry Russell and his wife, Nina ( née Andrade). Russell was partially of Jewish descent through his parents and of Spanish and Portuguese descent through his mother. [2]
He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 4 April 1970. [3]
Russell was known as Britain's first male almoner. [4]
Russell did not speak until he was three years old. At five years of age, he began to learn the cello. As a child in Paris, he was frequently taken to lunch with Claude Debussy. It was Debussy who diagnosed Russell as being partially deaf. [5]
During World War II, Russell worked for British Intelligence in Italy. [6]
He married the social worker and university teacher Katherine Russell on 1 June 1957. Russell died at his home on 9 April 1991 and a book on him Sheridan's Story was published privately by his wife in 1993 and all 1800 copies were sold. [2]
References
- ^ "Queen Square Archives - Artwork". Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ^ a b c Willmott, Phyllis (4 October 2007) [23 September 2004]. "Sheridan William Robin Russell (1900–1991)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/70246. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Sheridan Russell". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ^ Ann, Oakley (2014). Father and daughter : patriarchy, gender, and social science. Bristol: Policy Press. p. 116. ISBN 9781447318118. OCLC 892844009.
- ^ Klein Gompers, Gertrude (2010). Prisms of Light...Reflections of Shattered Glass: Our flight from the Holocaust. Xlibris, Corp. p. 239. ISBN 978-1453545911.
- ^ Russell, Sheridan (1993). Sheridan's Story. Kit Russell, William Barnes, E. J. B. Rose, Simon May. pp. 110–115.
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