Robin Russell, 14th Duke of Bedford

The Duke of Bedford
Born	(1940-01-21)21 January 1940
Died	13 June 2003(2003-06-13) (aged 63)
Title	Duke of Bedford
Tenure	25 October 2002 – 13 June 2003
Other titles	14th Marquess of Tavistock 18th Earl of Bedford 18th Baron Russell 16th Baron Russell of Thornhaugh 14th Baron Howland
Successor	Andrew Russell, 15th Duke
Spouse(s)	Henrietta Joan Tiarks
Issue	Andrew Ian Henry Russell Robin Loel Hastings Russell James Edward Herbrand Russell
Parents	John Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford Clare Gwendolen Bridgman

Henry Robin Ian Russell, 14th Duke of Bedford, DL (21 January 1940 – 13 June 2003) was a British peer. He became better known to the public than most of his ancestors by appearing in three series of the reality television programme Country House, made by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Two. He was born at the Ritz in London to John Ian Robert Russell, Lord Howland (later 13th Duke) and his first wife, Clare Gwendolyn Bridgman.

Biography

The Duke of Bedford was educated at Western Province Preparatory School and then the Diocesan College in South Africa. His father, the future 13th Duke of Bedford, had gone to South Africa in 1948 to farm in the Paarl area. He continued his education at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the early 1970s, while continuing to work with the stockbrokers de Zoete & Bevan, he took over the running of the Woburn Estate from his father, a pioneer of the commercialisation of country houses, who retired to Monaco. The Duke continued with the modernisation of the estate, and created a leading golf and country club business called Woburn Golf and Country Club.

However, his plans to develop a major theme park at Woburn failed to come to fruition. He suffered a severe stroke on 21 February 1988 when he was aged just 48,^[1] which he was not expected to survive, but did. The stroke led him to pursue a more relaxed lifestyle and to be much less of a workaholic during his later years. With his wife, the former Henrietta Joan Tiarks, he appeared in the BBC series Country House, detailing daily life at Woburn Abbey, the Bedfords' ancestral home in Bedfordshire, England. He succeeded his father to the dukedom on 25 October 2002, but died in 2003 after another stroke in the Tavistock Intensive Care Unit, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, where he had been a major patron. This made him the shortest-lived Duke of Bedford. He and his wife had already handed over control of Woburn Abbey to his eldest son Andrew, Lord Howland, in 2001.

Family and children

The then Marquess of Tavistock married on 20 June 1961 at St Clement Danes in London Henrietta Joan Tiarks (born London, 5 March 1940),^[2] daughter of Henry Frederick Tiarks III (born Woodheath, Chislehurst, 8 September 1900 – died Marbella, 2 July 1995), a merchant banker with Schroders, who had married firstly on 27 April 1930 (divorced in 1936) Lady Millicent Olivia Mary Taylour (died 24 December 1975), daughter of Geoffrey Taylour, 4th Marquess of Headfort; Henry Frederick Tiarks married secondly (3 October 1936) Ina Florence Marshman Bell (born London, 5 November 1903 – died Marbella, 10 April 1989), an actress known as Joan Barry, who had married firstly Henry Hampson.

Henrietta, Dowager Duchess of Bedford, is a granddaughter of Frank Cyril Tiarks and a relative of Mark Phillips.

The 14th Duke and Duchess of Bedford had three sons:

• Andrew Ian Henry Russell, 15th Duke of Bedford (b. 30 March 1962)
• Lord Robin Loel Hastings Russell (b. 12 August 1963)
• Lord James Edward Herbrand Russell (b. 11 February 1975)

Titles and honours

Titles

• The Honourable Henry 'Robin' Russell (January 1940 – August 1940)
• Lord Howland (1940–1953)
• Marquess of Tavistock (1953–2002)
• His Grace The Duke of Bedford (2002–2003)

Honours

• Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire (1985–2003)

References