Patrick Russell was born on 4 September 1907 in Trinidad, where his father Alexander David Russell was the first Puisne Judge. His mother's name was May Isabel McCallum. Educated at Rugby, he went to University College Hospital to study medicine, where he won the junior clinical surgery prize and the FT Roberts prize in obstetrics and gynaecology. After qualifying in 1931 he was house physician, house surgeon and then obstetric registrar at UCH and Charing Cross. During the war he served in the RAMC reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the military families' hospital in Cairo. After the war he was appointed consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. In 1942 he married Stephanie Morris. They had two daughters, Caroline and Susan, neither of whom went into medicine. He died on 25 August 2001, survived by his wife, children and grandchildren, Ben, Tom, Joanna and Frances.