He was President of the Zoological Society of London from 1899 to 1936, and was concerned with animal preservation throughout his life. According to Jane Goodall in her book Hope for Animals,[7] the Duke was instrumental in saving the milu (or Père David's deer), which was already extinct by 1900 in its native China. He acquired the few remaining deer from European zoos and nurtured a herd of them at Woburn Abbey. He gifted Himalayan tahr to the New Zealand government in 1903; of the three males and three females, five survived the journey and were released near the Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook Village. He sent a further shipment in 1909 of six males and two females. Himalayan tahr are near-threatened in their native India and Nepal, but are so numerous in New Zealand's Southern Alps that they are hunted recreationally. A statue of a Himalayan tahr was unveiled in May 2014 at Lake Pukaki and dedicated by Henrietta, Dowager Duchess of Bedford.[8]
In the 1890s he was responsible for the import of a number of Borth American grey squirrels which he introduced to Woburn Park. He also gifted many to other estates across the UK and introduced a group to Regents Park, the ancestors of the majority of squirrels in London today. The species proved to be highly invasive and has almost entirely wiped out the native red squirrel in most of the country.[9]
Bedford was also interested in horticulture, through the orchards at the Woburn estate, and along with Spencer Pickering performed early work into what would now be described as allelopathy between different plant species, the results of which can be found in academic publications.[10]
Herbrand Russell took as his ward the illegitimate Anglo-Indian daughter of his older brother, George Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford. The daughter was known to have lived with the family until she was married and frequently visited them afterwards.
Honours
Garter-encircled arms of Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, KG, KBE, DL, FRS, FSA
His grandson Ian Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford describes him as follows: "A selfish, forbidding man, with a highly developed sense of public duty and ducal responsibility, he lived a cold, aloof existence, isolated from the outside world by a mass of servants, sycophants and an eleven-mile wall." In conjunction with his son Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford, he developed plans to protect the Bedford fortune from the British tax regime. However, he died too soon for these to come to fruition and the only result was to involve his grandson in enormous difficulties in obtaining access to the family properties.
Herbrand and Hastings Russell feature largely in the 13th Duke's memoir, A Silver-Plated Spoon (World Books, 1959).
Ancestry
Ancestors of Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford
^"Court Circular". The Times. No. 36782. London. 31 May 1902. p. 8.
Bibliography
Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 100th Edn, London, 1953.
Jane Goodall, with Thane Maynard and Gail Hudson, Hope for Animals and Their World: How endangered species are being rescued from the brink, 2009, Grand Central Publishing
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