Biography:
Robert Vane Russell was born 8 August 1873, the son of Commander Charles Robert Tilden Russell of the Royal Navy.
He came to Winchester as a scholar in September 1886 and won a couple of prizes for Modern Languages. He also played in College XV in 1890.
Russell went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1891 and from there joined the Indian Civil Service in 1893. He served in the Central Provinces as an Assistant Commissioner and became Superintendent of Ethnography in 1902. He compiled "The Castes and Tribes of the Central Provinces", published in 1916. As Superintendent of Census Operations he also oversaw the 1901 Census of India.
Russell died on 30December 1915 when the ship on which he was travelling back to India, the SS Persia, was torpedoed without warning by U-38, a German u-boat commanded by First World War ace, Max Valentiner, off the coast of Crete. SS Persia sank within 10 minutes of being hit, killing 343 of the 519 on board. The sinking was highly controversial as it broke international naval laws that shipping carrying passengers should be given the opportunity for passengers to disembark before combat commenced. Among the passengers was John Douglas-Scott-Montague, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (who survived) and his secretary, Eleanor Thornton, who was the model for the Rolls-Royce "Spirit of Ecstasy". She drowned in the incident.