Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford
| The Duke of Bedford | |
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Arms of the Duke of Bedford
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| Born | 21 December 1888 |
| Died | 9 October 1953 (aged 64) |
| Title | Duke of Bedford |
| Tenure | 27 August 1940 – 9 October 1953 |
| Other titles | 12th Marquess of Tavistock 16th Earl of Bedford 16th Baron Russell 14th Baron Russell of Thornhaugh 12th Baron Howland |
| Successor | John Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford |
| Spouse(s) | Louisa Crommelin Roberta Jowitt Whitwell |
| Issue |
John Ian Robert Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford Daphne Crommelin Russell Hugh Hastings Russell |
| Parents |
Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford Mary du Caurroy Tribe |
Hastings William Sackville Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford (21 December 1888 – 9 October 1953) was a British peer. He was the son of Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford and his wife Mary Du Caurroy Tribe, DBE, RRC, FLS, the aviator and ornithologist. He was noted for both his career as a naturalist and for his involvement in far-right politics.
Educated at Eton College, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a Master of Arts (M.A.). He gained the rank of Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, but never fought in the First World War owing to ill health.
A keen naturalist, he arranged a 1906 expedition to Shaanxi, China to collect zoological specimens for the British Museum, during which Arthur de Carle Sowerby discovered a new species of jerboa. He was also closely involved in his father's ultimately successful efforts to preserve the Père David's deer, a Chinese species that was close to extinction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He was also an ornithologist, specialising in parrots and budgerigars, to whom he would feed chocolates, although his eldest son was often reduced to eating them; his other pets included a spider to whom, according to Nancy Mitford's The English Aristocracy, he would regularly feed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
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