Bertrand Russell humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought". Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, into an influential and liberal family of the British aristocracy. His parents, Viscount and Viscountess Amberley, were radical for their times. Lord Amberley consented to his wife's affair with their children's tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding. Both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous. Lord Amberley was an atheist and his atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russell's secular godfather. Mill died the year after Russell's birth,
John Russell, 7th Earl Russell John Russell, 7th Earl Russell John Francis Russell, 7th Earl Russell, (born 19 November 1971) is a Liberal Democrat politician. He is the son of Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell, grandson of Bertrand Russell and great-great-grandson of John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1864 to 1865. He succeeded to the earldom on the death of his brother Nicholas Russell, 6th Earl Russell, on 17 August 2014. Russell served as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Lewisham Borough Council 2006–10 and was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Greenwich and Lewisham Greater London Assembly