21 Mar 2005                   


            Husband: Emil RUSS     died at age: 80 
               Born: 2 Nov 1877           at 70 New Bond Street London  1
               Died: 1958                 in East Grinstead Sussex  
           Baptized: 2 Jan 1878           at St George's Hanover Square  2
          Education:                      Shebbear College, North Devon  3
             Census: 31 Mar 1901          at Belswains House Abbots Langley Herts  4
          Emigrated: May 1902             to India  5
         Occupation: 1904-1906            Evennett Russ & Co civil & military tailors  6,7
         Occupation: 1905?                Court tailor  8
         Occupation: 1920                 Departmental Manager, Army & Navy Stores, Calcutta  9
              Event: 1920                 Winner of Calcutta Sweepstake  10,11,12,13
            Resided: 1921 [?] - 1940[?]   in South London  14
         Retirement:                      in Peacehaven Sussex  
           Cremated: 9 May 1958           ashes scattered  at family graves Hampstead Cemetery  
         Father: Christian Carl Gottfried RUSS 
         Mother: Emily CALLAWAY 


               Wife: Helen FERGUSON     
            Married: 1908                 in Quetta, India  15
             Father:
             Mother:
 
 

          M Child 1: James Lewis RUSS      Nickname Jim 
               Born: 15 July 1913         in India  
               Died: 23 Nov 1988            
             Spouse: Margaret Gray WALLIS  
            Married: 25 Jan 1947            
          F Child 2: Betty Rene RUSS      died at age: 85 
               Born: 11 Apr 1915          in Calcutta, India  
               Died: 10 Dec 2000            
         Occupation:  9 Apr 1939          MI 5  16
         Occupation:                      MI 6  17
             Spouse: Malcolm MORRIS  d. Oct 1972  
            Married: 27 Apr 1949            

Sources:
(1) Emily Callaway, Day Book, 'Emil born November 2nd 1877 at 70 New Bond St W 
registered Dec 11th christened at St Georges Jan 5th'. 
(2) Emily Callaway, Day Book. 
(3) DK, 'Soon thereafter [death of Walter 13 Dec 1886] the eight surviving boys 
were dispatched to Shebbear College, a long-established boarding school in north 
Devon.  Charles, at the age of eleven, and his younger brothers Emil, Percy and 
Sidney (who was just eight years old) left home in 1888.  Ernest, Albert, 
Frederick and William soon completed the Russ contingent at Shebbear, a school 
founded by a Low Church group and later affiliated with the Methodist Church.  
The brothers often remained at school even during the holidays. 
Boarding school was primarily a privilege of the rich, but conditions at 
Shebbear did not betray the fact.  The boys took to eating their peach stones to 
stave off hunger, a habit that little Sidney would maintain for the rest of his 
life.  When at home, the brothers proved that they had absorbed their Latin 
lessons, calling their mother 'Mater'.  But they were not coddled at home 
either.  'Pater' would not tolerate idleness or airs in his boys, who during 
holidays were put to work learning the furrier trade', 12. 
(4) Census 1901, "Emily Russ - visitor single age 23 MALE[!] - tailor - worker 
- born London Mary Le Bone" staying with Edith's mother-in-law Mary Ann Ormandy 
[her third marriage] a Court dressmaker, RG13-1323-76-17 SN100. 
(5) Emily Callaway, Day Book, May 23 1902: Gave Cheque to Emil Russ to settle 
his expenses & on his departure for India Advance a/c  £75, 128. 
(6) Ind, Peter Goddard. 
(7) Newspaper, Thacker's Indian Directory 1906 - embracing the whole of British 
India & Native States, with complete and detailed information of the cities of 
Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad, Lahore, Simla, Rangoon et. 
A directory of the chief industries of India, postal and telegraph rataes, 
customs adn stamp duties, commission charges, Army List, official, law, 
ecclestiastical, educational, railway and newspaper directories etc etc. 
With Eleven Maps, including a Railway Map. 
(The Forty-Fourth issue of "The Bengal Directory") 
Calcutta: printed and published by Thacker, Spink & Co. 
p 1088 Simla [Mofussil Directory] Commercial: 
Evennett, Russ & Co. civil and mily. tailors etc: Ptnrs. W H Evennett and E 
Russ. 
(8) DK, 'the gregarious Emil, who was said to have had a talent for writing when 
younger.  In 1905, he had moved to India and, as William recorded on the back of 
a family photograph, became 'court tailor.....and friend of Maharajah X', 23. 
(9) Newspaper, 'The Romance of the Calcutta Sweep' by Maj. H Hobbs VD, 
136. 
(10) Carolyn FINDELL (24 Jun 2001). 
(11) DK, 'Uncle Emil, who had worked as a tailor in India until he won the 
Calcutta Sweep in 1920.  He pocketed £15,800 and hied it back to England.  There 
he liked to swim in the sea and hold court in the pubs, where he was known to 
spin a yarn or two.  Emil lost his fortune almost as quickly as he made it.  
According to Major H. Hobbs, who wrote 'The Romance of the Calcutta Sweep': In 
1927 the news was broadcast through the British Empire, possibly right round the 
world, that he, a prize winner in the Derby Sweep, had made his appearance in 
the Canterbury Bankruptcy Court, where it was stated that he had been living at 
the rate of £2,000 a year.', 73. 
(12) ABR, 'Having apprenticed as a tailor, he went to India to make uniforms for 
the British Army.  One day he and three friends decided to take equal shares for 
the "Calcutta Turf" - the Indian equivalent of the English Derby.  We were never 
able to find out how much he won, but he gave up tailoring, and India, returned 
to England and purchased a large house in South London, with more than enough 
room for our brood during school holidays, and where we were always welcome.  
His wife disapproved of his fondness for alcohol and left him - which was, 
perhaps, just as well, as the house was flattened not long after during one of 
the first bombing raids of World War II!  Not only was the house demolished, but 
so was Emil's life of financial independence.  Undaunted, he took a job with the 
Post Office, delivering mail.  The end of his route used to take him close to 
"The Prince of Wales' Feathers" - a pub just off Oxford Street, and although 
having tempered his preference for alcohol considerably, he still enjoyed a pint 
or two. The story goes that on this particular day he only had sufficient funds 
for one pint, after which he set off to report to Headquarters.  He was hardly 
out of sight of the pub when one of the first V-2 bombs made a direct hit on the 
building.  Uncle used to tell us that since he had won the Sweepstake, escaped 
unscathed from his demolished home and from certain death in the pub, it was 
obvious that he lived a charmed life!  And, he would add with a twinkle, had he 
been less temperate and stayed for the extra pint, he might not have lived to 
tell the tale.', 4. 
(13) Newspaper, In 1920, Emil Russ, a departmental manager of the Army & Navy 
Stores, Calcutta, drew Buchan, who ran second to Grand Parade, and won the 
equivalent of £15,800 with which he left the country. In February 1927 the news 
was broadcasted throughout the British Empire, possibly right round the world 
that he, a prize winner in the Derby Sweep, had made his appearance in the 
Canterbury Bankruptcy Court, where it was stated that he had been living at the 
rate of £2,000 a year. The facts were that, like many others, he sunk his money 
into what looked like solid concerns, but the slump of 1921 carried away his 
small sum with the millions lost by sound business firms all over the world.  
During the boom years after the war, millionaires almost swarmed in Bradford, 
but in 1924 several of the most solvent were living on compassionate allowances 
of £3 a week grudgingly granted by their bankers. If therefore Russ kept going 
in such times for seven years he ought to be congratulated.  Of course he might 
have put his money into Consols and lived on £200 a year or kept at work 
hoarding the interest.  But the fact is that those who invested their savings or 
winnings in gilt-edged securities, lost just as much as those who took chances 
in the clouds. 
, 'The Romance of the Calcutta Sweep' by Major H. Hobbs, VD.  Printed 1930 by 
Thacker's Press & Directories Ltd, 6 Mangoe Lane, Calcutta and published by H> 
Hobbs, 4 Esplanade East, Calcutta, 136. 
(14) ABR, 4. 
(15) Ind, 'I have just come across a letter sent to my stepfather by his first 
cousin Betty Morris in 1998.  In it she explains that she is the daughter 
of 
Patrick's Uncle Emil (d. 1958).  While in Quetta in 1908 Emil married Mrs 
Morris's mother Helen, the widow of an Irishman named Murphy.  They had a son 
James in 1909, and Betty was born in Calcutta in 1915.  In 1918 her father won 
the Calcutta Sweep.  The family promptly returned home, where they settled in 
Hampstead for a few years.  From there they moved 'to a biggish house & huge 
garden' in SE London, and again when the money began to run out to Northwood 
about 1932. 
Betty joined MI5 on 4/9/39, and was later seconded to MI6.  In July 1949 she 
married a barrister named Malcolm Morris, who later became a QC and judge at the 
Old Bailey.  They had children Rupert (born 9/12/51) and Laura (born 31/7/53).  
Sadly her husband died in October 1972, aged 59.', Letter from Betty Morris to 
POB - with N Tolstoy. 
(16) Ind, 'Betty joined MI5 on 4/9/39, and was later seconded to MI6.  I, Betty 
Morris to POB - with N Tolstoy. 
(17) Ind, 'Betty joined MI5 on 4/9/39, and was later seconded to MI6.', Betty 
Morris to POB - with N Tolstoy. 

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