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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