AMPTHILL (OF AMPTHILL), ODO WILLIAM LEOPOLD RUSSELL, ...

born Feb. 20, 1829, Florence, Italy died Aug. 25, 1884, Potsdam, Ger. British diplomat, the first British ambassador to the German Empire (187184). A member of a prominent family, Russell as a youth became fluent in French, German, and Italian through tutoring and wide travel and also acquired the social gifts for a diplomatic career. He served in a variety of posts in Vienna, Paris, Constantinople, Washington, Florence, Naples, and finally Rome, where he remained 12 years (185870) in the official legation and, additionally, was an unofficial British representative to the Vatican, putting up some resistance to the idea of papal infallibility. He was then made ambassador to Berlin, where he attempted to remain on good terms with Otto von Bismarck, though he was aware of the chancellor's unscrupulousness and firmly withstood his deceptions. He was a plenipotentiary at the Congress of Berlin, working strongly behind the scenes (1878) and was afterward rewarded with a knighthood (1879) and a peerage (1881).