Revd John Russell

We were greatly saddened to receive news of alumnus Revd John Graham Russell who passed away Wednesday, 24 July 2024. Photograph and obituary kindly shared by Martin (John’s son).

Nothing in John’s early years seemed to predestine him for the Church. The son of an eminent soil scientist, he graduated from Cambridge with a First in Chemical Engineering. His family expected him to pursue a scientific career, but to their consternation he chose to give all that up for his vocation to serve God and his fellow man. The decision paid off in more ways than one, for it was while at theological college that John met his future wife Philippa. Among other things, the two were brought together by their shared love of music: John was a keen singer and French horn player, while Philippa went on to become a cello teacher.

John’s first curacy was in Bridgwater, Somerset, where his first two children, Martin and Judith, were born. Soon after he moved to Leeds, serving first as a curate in Headingly, where he became father to George, and then as Vicar in Little London, a newly redeveloped former slum area. As John put it, this was not the sort of posting that most priests would wish for. The parish lacked even a church building, and services were held jointly with Catholics, Methodists and Baptists in the school, and later in the community centre. At one point, the couple’s own living room became the venue for worship! One of John’s many achievements was to help launch a Community Association to campaign against a threatened rent rise.

The next step in John’s career was a move to the West Midlands, where he worked in Rowley Regis, followed by Hall Green and then back to the Black Country for the last five years of his working life as Deanery Priest in Warley. It was about this time that John and Philippa moved to the house in Harborne where he was to spend the rest of his life.

John did not travel much, preferring to spend most family holidays in the English countryside, but in 1983 he took a sabbatical for an adventurous trip behind the Iron Curtain. In East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland, John made contact with numerous fellow Protestants. His insights into how they coped with living under Communist regimes that were often hostile towards Christians formed the basis of a report which was later submitted to Margaret Thatcher.

The early years of John’s retirement were active ones, his days filled with volunteering at the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, rambling, concerts, and of course participation in the life of St Peter’s, where he often helped out by taking services. For many years, John sang in the Birmingham Bach Choir, and while there he produced a much-praised translation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Sadly, John’s final years were marred by ill-health, which increasingly limited his mobility and prevented him from enjoying many of his former pastimes. Yet he bore these burdens uncomplainingly, always putting the needs of others first. In 2017, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and given a life expectancy of mere months, John bore the threat of imminent death with heroic fortitude. Miraculously, John survived cancer and was to live for seven more years before finally succumbing to old age. A true servant of God and humanity, John met his end serenely, his only sadness the thought that he would leave his beloved Philippa a widow. May he rest in peace.

‘He was one of the most honest people I have ever met. He could ruffle a few feathers by being scrupulously honest when many people might give a white lie, but everyone respected him for his beliefs. He always looked on the charitable side of things, and refused to criticise people when others felt he had been hard done by. He was a truly Christian man.’  (Ann, John’s sister)