Sydney Gordon Russell
Sir (Sydney) Gordon Russell (1892–1980) designer and craftsman
1892 Born in Cricklewood, son of Sydney Bolton Russell, a bank clerk, and his wife, Elizabeth Shefford.
1904 His father took over the Lygon Arms in Broadway, Worcestershire
Gordon Russell came to share his entrepreneurial father's passion for ancient buildings, antique furniture, and out-of-the-way objects, helping in the hotel's own furniture repair shop while he was still a boy.
Educated at Chipping Campden grammar school, the small town where C. R. Ashbee had moved his Guild of Handicraft from east London.
WWI Served in the Worcester regiment. Awarded the Military Cross.
Invalided out of the Army he took his military organisational skills to the design and production of furniture. His early pieces of furniture were clearly influenced by the Arts and Crafts designers.
1921 Married Constance Elizabeth Jane Vere Denning.
1922 Exhibited his furniture for the first time
1923 He was asked to design a "model" café for an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum
1924 His furniture was included in the Palace of Arts at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley
1925 he won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition for his English walnut inlaid cabinet and stand with barley-sugar stick legs, first of a series of designs inspired by eighteenth-century examples. He employed 30 craftsmen in his Broadway workshop.
Became a member of the Design and Industries Association.
As his firm gradually moved towards machine production of furniture, Russell also continued to design his one-off craftsman-made pieces, putting into practice the theory of interdependence of hand and machine on which his whole design philosophy was based.
1929 Opened a London retail shop.
1930 Took on his younger brother R. D. Russell, as a designer. Gordon moved into the role of creative director.
The company survived the slump by manufacturing radio cabinets for Murphy.
1935 Gordon Russell Ltd opened a new factory at Park Royal, West London, specifically for Murphy production.
Gordon Russell Ltd stayed in business through the war by making ammunition boxes, high precision aircraft models for wind tunnel testing, and parts for the wings of RAF Mosquito planes.
1942 He was invited by Dr Hugh Dalton, president of the Board of Trade, to join the wartime utility furniture committee advising the government on furniture.
1943 Appointed chairman of the Utility Furniture Design Panel, which he used to introduce the wider public to the principles of simple, rational design.
1944 he became a member of the new Council of Industrial Design.
1947 Gordon Russell became director of the Council of Industrial Design. Appointed CBE.
1955 Knighted.
1980 Died at home.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Sir Gordon Russell, ODNB