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
Sir William Russell, 2nd Baronet Sir William Russell, 2nd Baronet Lieutenant-General Sir William Russell, 2nd Baronet (5 April 1822 – 19 March 1892), was a British Army officer who served in the Crimean War and in the suppression of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and then became a Liberal Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover from 1857 to 1859, and for Norwich from 1860 to 1874. Russell was the son of Sir William Russell, 1st Baronet of Charlton Park (1773–1839) and his second wife Jane Eliza Russell, daughter of Major-General James Dodington Sherwood. After taking the degree of M.D. at