Author:
W. H. Russell [Sir William Howard Russell] (1820-1907), pioneering Anglo-Irish journalist, correspondent of The Times in the Crimea and American Civil War, and during the Indian Mutiny
Publication details:
16 February 1884; 24 Avenue Victor Hugo [Paris], on letterhead of the New Club, Boulevard Malesherbes,
According to Russell’s entry in the Oxford DNB, while reporting on the Civil War, he was described by one American newspaper as ‘the most famous newspaper correspondent the world has ever seen'. The inscription on his memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral calls him ‘'the first and greatest of War Correspondents'. He coined the phrase ‘thin red line’, was instrumental in the sending of Florence Nightingale to the Crimea, and is said to have written the report that inspired Tennyson to write ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.
