Edwin Fairman Russell (July 15, 1914 – December 22, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher who had joined the Royal Navy to fight Germany before the United States entered World War II.
[3] As the United States had yet to enter World War II, Russell enlisted in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.
In the autumn of 1941, he was summoned for active duty in the British Royal Navy and, after a brief tour of duty in Canadian waters, attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and served aboard the British cruiser Norfolk as gunnery officer.
[4] In 1943, he transferred to the United States Navy upon the U.S.'s entry into the War, and eventually joined the staff of Gen. Dwight D.
[1] In 1947, Russell paid $2,500,000 to purchase the Harrisburg Patriot and Evening News from the widow of Vance C. McCormick, the former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee who owned the papers and had died in 1946.
Lady Sarah's grandmother was Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877–1964), who married Jacques Balsan (1868–1956) after her divorce from the Duke of Marlborough.
Her maternal grandparents were Virginia Graham Fair and William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the brother of Russell's first wife's grandmother.