[1][2] In his position as Chief Architect to the Public Works Department of the Government of India, he is primarily associated with the development of the city of New Delhi in the early 1930s.

He served in Mesopotamia (Iraq) with the Artists Rifles and was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order for action during the British advance on Turkish-held Baghdad in the early months of 1917.

In this position he led the team that established the monumental architecture of New Delhi according to the neo-classical model envisaged by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

During this period he designed Teen Murti Bhavan (Flagstaff House) originally for the Commander in Chief of the British Indian Army; it subsequently became the residence of Jawaharlal Nehru.

[13] Russell retired from India in 1941 and returned to Britain whereupon he took on the position as Chief Planning Inspector for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government until 1954.