MR. HAROLD RUSSELL [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The sudden and untimely death of Mr. Harold Russell will cast a shadow over a wide circle of friends. He was an outstanding man—a man whose place in many lives it will be difficult, nay, impossible, to fill. His mind and :character were essentially original. Though in no sense an eccentric or a visionary, he looked at the world of men and women in a way that was quite different from that assumed by the various categories into which human beings are generally divided— such as cynics, mystics, egotists, sentimentalists, logicians, materialists, reformers, individualists, radicals and die-hards. He took up with no second-hand opinions, but thought for himself. He was never "awed by rumour," never followed the crowd, never picked up his opinions at random, never echoed other men's opinions out of idleness. No doubt he was liable to be called unteachable, but how much better was that than the dull and assiduous conformity of most of his fellows.
Talking with him had no resemblance to listening to a gramophone. But though he was not teachable or easily con- vertible, he was in no sense a man of prejudices. Above all he was just, trustworthy and could not be frightened or cajoled or persuaded or influenced into doing what he judged to be wrong or foolish or base. He loved Nature, and especially birds, and probably knew as much about them as any man in England. He was a worthy representative of the great English stock from which he sprung, but no man had less family pride in the bad serse. He was no doubt fastidious in the conduct of life, but never arrogant.—! am, Sir, &c.,
J. ST. Lon STRACHEY.
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