[3] Alison Russell served in various legal positions in the British Colonial offices in Africa, the Mediterranean and the West Indies.

[1] On 21 March 1907 Henry Hesketh Bell, His Majesty's Commissioner in Uganda, conferred on William Alison Russell of Entebbe the power of administering oaths in all cases in which he was concerned as Administrator-General, Curator in Lunacy or Receiver in Bankruptcy.

[6] This office had formerly been called "Legal Advisor of the Government", but the responsibilities were steady increased, and in 1925 the title was changed to "Attorney General".

[9] The first governor of Tanganyika under the British mandate was Sir Horace Byatt, who started to give the chiefs greater involvement in the administration.

[11] Alison Russell was Legal Adviser to the Governor of Malta before being assigned to a commission of inquiry in Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia).

[13] In late May 1935 there was a gathering of striking Bemba miners outside the offices of the Roan Antelope copper mine in Luanshya District, Northern Rhodesia.

The governor, Hubert Winthrop Young formed a commission led by Alison Russell to report on the reason for the disturbances.

[17] The Alison Russell Commission found that the 1 June 1942 riot in Nassau by 2,000 Black laborers was not related to race, but was about economic issues.