She was briefly engaged to George Stephen, older stepbrother of Virginia Woolf. Hearing the news, Woolf sent a congratulations telegram: "She is an angel" and signed with her family nickname "Goat". The telegram delivered was "She is an aged Goat." George Stephen later commented that he thought Woolf was referring to Flora Russell's reluctance to ally herself with the Stephen family. Woolf denied and said the mistake was due to her handwriting. At the end George Stephen married Lady Margaret Herbert.[5]
She was a watercolour painter and her portrait of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), traveller, spy and archaeologist, is at the National Portrait Gallery.[6] Bell was a childhood friend and Russell and Bell, together with Russell's sister, Diana, worked together at the Wounded & Missing Enquiry Department (W&MED) office in France. The W&MED, founded by Lord Robert Cecil, was offering tracking services for the men involved in the World War I: killed soldiers whose name wasn't yet official; wounded soldiers in hospital unable to communicate with home; and prisoners. Flora and Diana would take turns so that at least one of them was always in the office.[7]
Having many relatives in the diplomatic corps around the world, while she was travelling she was a guest of the British embassies instead of lodging at hotels.[2]
In 1921 Flora Russell sold for £22,500 (£1,260,856 in 2023 sterling) the townhouse at 2 Audley Square she had inherited from her father to the University Women's Club, which is still housed there.[4] In 1928 she moved to the country, and built "South Down". The house was later bought by her great-nephew, Alexander Plunket Greene, the husband of Mary Quant.[2]
In 1965 Gimson and Eustace recorded Flora Russell, at the time 96 years old, whose speech they regard as a "good example of a certain kind of Victorian English".[1]
Flora Russell died on 23 August 1967, Diana Russell on 31 October 1971, both sisters at 97 years old, unmarried.[8]
