Patricia Spence

Who was Patricia Spence?

Patricia Russell, Countess Russell, was the third wife of philosopher Bertrand Russell, and a significant contributor to his book, History of Western Philosophy.

Countess Russell was born Marjorie Helen Spence in 1910. As her parents had always wanted a boy, she was known as 'Peter'. She met Bertrand Russell in 1930 when she was a twenty-year old undergraduate at the University of Oxford, hired by Russell's second wife Dora Black as a governess. They had an affair and were married at the Midhurst registry office on 18 January 1936. They had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the Liberal Democrat party. They had an acrimonious separation in 1949.