Russell was born in Belgravia, London, educated at Eton College and studied engineering at Imperial College London. In 1926 he was commissioned into the 21st Armoured Car Company of the Territorial Army; he was promoted Lieutenant in 1929 and Captain in 1938. His hobby until 1935 was racing cars, and he was a young supporter of fascist Sir Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists. In 1926 in Marylebone, he married Dorothy Evelyn Meyrick, daughter of 43 Club owner Kate Meyrick. Since he was nineteen, the law at the time required him to have his mother's consent to the marriage, which he knew he could not obtain due to his fiancée's association with the West End. He therefore lied about his age claiming to be 21, for which he was fined £50 by the Lord Mayor of London in the magistrates' court. In 1928 he made his maiden speech in the House of Lords, on the subject of road safety, in which he proposed introducing mandatory driving tests for anyone applying for a driving licence. During his career in the House he also argued for speed limits to be imposed.
Trial in the House of Lords
On 15 August 1935, Lord de Clifford was involved in a high speed head-on collision which killed a 26-year-old driver in Surrey, Douglas George Hopkins, and caused him injury, while driving his sports car on the wrong side of the road. When a jury in the coroner's court found unanimously that an 'accident involving others' was the cause of death, and that he had been well beyond the speed limit, the police charged him with a felony. At first he was indicted and committed for trial at the Old Bailey, until it dawned on the courts that, as he was a peer of the realm, only the House of Lords could try him for a felony. Since this had not occurred since 1901, when The 2nd Earl Russell was convicted of bigamy, the House set up a select committee to investigate the precedents and rules for such a proceeding. The trial commenced on 12 December, with the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, presiding, in the capacity of Lord High Steward appointed by the Crown for the occasion. The Attorney General prosecuted the case. Admission to the public was by ticket only. This was to be the last ever trial in the House of Lords, since the right of peers to be tried by their peers for felonies was abolished by the Criminal Justice Act 1948. Lord de Clifford's defence was that Hopkins's vehicle had been travelling at excessive speed on the wrong side and that de Clifford had been compelled to switch lanes at the last moment to avoid a collision, only for the other vehicle to do the same. This defence was successful and he was acquitted. Lord de Clifford still faced another charge of dangerous driving, which was not a felony and therefore could not be tried in the House. He was due to be tried in the Old Bailey in January. However, in view of his acquittal, the prosecution abandoned their case and a verdict of not guilty was entered. He made no more speeches in the House of Lords for nearly forty years.
