Thomas Taylor Russell, born 1 July 1897, in Bolton, Lancashire, was the second son of William Russell (1859-1937), a solicitor and later Mayor of Bolton (1921-2) and Conservative Member of Parliament for Bolton (1922-3), and Mary Russell. He was educated at Monmouth School and New College, Oxford. He served in the Fourth Battalion Royal Lancashire Regiment in Egypt and France during the First World War. A qualified barrister, Russell joined the Middle Temple in Manchester and in the early 1930s was appointed as a judge with the International Court based in Siam [Thailand]. After a return to England, Russell joined the Colonial Legal Service and served as Chief Magistrate in Suva, Fiji, before being posted to Perak, British Malaya [Malaysia], in 1940 as Deputy Public Prosecutor. Following the Fall of Singapore in 1942, Russell was captured by the Japanese and interned as a civilian in Changi and Sime Road. He returned to Singapore after the Second World War as a district judge and later served as a Supreme Court judge in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He married Helene Rigby in 1925 and had two daughters, Joan and Ann. Their daughters were educated in New Zealand during the war. Russell retired in 1951 and died in Bristol in 1975.