Samuel Bridgman Russell [also known as S. B. Russell] was born on 9 August 1864 and was articled to Henry Hewitt Bridgman (1845-1898) from 1881 to 1884. He also attended the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1882. He then worked as an assistant to Thomas Chatfeild Clarke (1829-1895) and Howard Chatfeild Clarke (1860?-1917) in 1885, and to Willam Wallace and William Flockhart (1854-1913) of Wallace & Flockhart in 1886. Russell qualified in 1890 and subsequently practised as an architect in London.
In 1890 he formed the partnership Gibson & Russell with James Glen Sivewright Gibson (1861-1951). The partnership was dissolved in 1899 and in the early 1900s he went into partnership with Thomas Edwin Cooper (1873-1942) as Russell & Cooper. This partnership was dissolved in 1912. Russell was later Chief Architect in the Ministry of Health. In 1926 he relocated his practice to Hitchin in Hertfordshire. In 1939 he was briefly in partnership with his son, Robert Tor Russell (1888-1972).
S. B. Russell was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1890 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British architects (FRIBA) in 1902. He retired from practice in 1939 and died on 2 August 1955.
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Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian Architecture: a Biographical Dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 189, 12 August 155 p. 278
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 189, 19 August 155 p. 305
‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 63, 1956 p. 39