William Howard Russell 1850. Initially sent by editor John Delane to Malta to cover British support for the Ottoman Empire against Russia in 1854, Russell despised the term "war correspondent" but his coverage of the conflict brought him international renown, and Florence Nightingale later credited her entry into wartime nursing to his reports. The Crimean medical care, shelter and protection of all ranks by Mary Seacole was also publicised by Russell and by other contemporary journalists, rescuing her from bankruptcy. Russell was described by one of the soldiers on the frontlines thus: "a vulgar low Irishman, [who] sings a good song, drinks anyone's
William Ritchie Russell William Ritchie Russell William Ritchie Russell CBE FRSE (7 February 1903–8 December 1980) was a 20th-century Scottish neurologist. Russell was born in Edinburgh on 7 February 1903 the eldest of six children of Beatrice Ritchie, the daughter of civil engineer James Ritchie, and William Russell, Professor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. The family lived at 3 Walker Street in Edinburgh's West End. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh (partly under his father). He graduated with an MB ChB in 1926 and then became a physician and house surgeon at Edinburgh