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Note: o Drury Lane Theatre. He first sang in public at the age of three and studied singing in Bologna where he learned singing from Bellini and counterpoint from Donizetti. In 1833, Henry went to Canada. He returned to England and married Isabella Lloyd in London in 1835. They returned to America and settled in the United States where Henry became a popular entertainer. In 1838 he wrote the song "A Life on the Ocean Wave". In 1839, Henry appeared as Elvino in "La Sonnambula" at Philadelphia. In 1843, Henry and family moved to Rochester, New York for several years where he was an organist and taught pianoforte. He made a fortune singing his own songs at concerts. However, he lost over $50,000 when the New York Bank failed. Three children were born in the United States, including William Clark Russell who became a popular novelist. In 1845, Henry and his family returned to England again where he was also a popular performer. He entered into a relationship with Hannah de Lara with whom he had two more children in the 1870's, Henry Russell and Landon Ronald. The former became an opera singer while the latter became a composer and conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Isabella died in 1887 and, in 1889, Henry married Hannah. In his later life, Henry became a money lender and bill-broker. Henry wrote over 800 songs in all, the most well known today being "A Life on the Ocean Wave" and "Cheer Boys, Cheer".
Obituary - The Times, 7 Dec 1900
"Mr Henry Russell, the singer and writer of songs, died at his residence in London early this morning after a few weeks' illness. Mr Russell was born at Sheerness so far back as the year 1812, and retired from public life in the early sixties. His decease, therefore, seems to be that of a man of the past rather than the present generation. All the same his active career extended over a period of something like four decades, and he attained to a position that was unique in its way, while some at least of the 800 songs which he set to music during the course of his life - such as "Cheer Boys, Cheer!", "A Good Time Coming, Boys" and "A Life on the Ocean Wave" - have taken a permanent place in the repetoire of British vocal music. He wrote and sang at a time when musical culture was far less widespread than it is at present; but he was born, as he said "with an innate love of melody." It was principally this element of melody, combined with a keen dramatic instinct, that enabled him to appeal directly to the hearts more especially of the middle and working classes, and to exercise an influence and enjoy a popularity quite remarkable in their way.
He was fortunate in having for his collaborators such writers as Eliza Cook, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, Longfellow, Tennyson, Dr Charles Mackay and others, whose compositions went far towards helping him to achieve his reputation as a story-teller in song. Healthy sentiment, stirring verse, touches of everyday life, and stimulating hopefulness were combined with bright and tuneful music, while the words of the songs were rendered by Russell with an absolute clearness of enunciation, for which he was indebted in the first instance partly to the personal advice of Edmund Kean and partly to the example of Henry Clay. He was, however, more than an entertainer. His songs with a purpose were the precursor to the novel with a purpose. Even before "Uncle Tom's Cabin" appeared, Henry Russell's songs had strongly aroused public sentiment in favour of the slaves of the United States, and were of distinct service in preparing the way for subsequent events. Fifty years ago, too, when Australia and New Zealand were but little known, his songs "To the West" and "A Good Time Coming, Boys" induced thousands of people to direct their thoughts to emigration, and there are said to be in Canada, to-day many well-to-do persons who owe their present position to the fact that they or their fathers emigrated to that land as a direct result of Henry Russell's cheery songs. Then again, "The Maniac" exposed the horrors of private lunatic asylums, and aroused great feeling in the country concerning them some time before the theme was taken up by Charles Reade and other novelists. "The Gin Friend", written half a century ago, "The Gambler's Wife" and other songs were stirring and highly popular attacks on the vices of the day. In fact, Russell was wont to declare that all his songs were "written earnestly, and with a beneficent purpose", and in his volume of reminiscences, published in 1895, he lamented, in speaking of the popular music of to-day, the "decay of honest sentiment and the advance of drivel", as indicated by "an unhealthy overflow of maudlin sentimentality" and the "senseless and ridiculous refrains which obtain ephemeral popularity".
The events of Henry Russell's life were comparatively few. Born, as already mentioned, in 1812, he early showed a taste for music, and when quite a child joined a "Children's Opera" formed by Robert William Elliston, of Drury Lane. He used to recall the fact that on one occasion he sang before George IV, who was so delighted that he took him on his knee and kissed his cheek. His first actual start in life was at the age of ten behind the counter of a chemist's shop; but as he found one day - happily in good time - that he had given to a customer who had asked for Epsom salts enough poison to kill 50 persons he thought he was not quite suited to that business, and accordingly left it. Against the will of his father he resolved to become a musician, and he took lessons from a person living in Seven-dials, who offered him instruction at the rate of 6d a lesson. At 12 he went to Italy, where he made the acquaintance of Donizetti and Bellini, and saw the production of the former's "Anna Bolena" and the latter's "La Sonnambula". From Italy he went to Paris, and at 20 he proceeded to Canada and America. Owing to the jealousy and opposition of other musicians in New York, he took up the then novel idea of giving entertainments of his own, instead of joining a company, and he also resolved to compose his own songs. These ideas were so successful that he visited many parts of the States, and was everywhere most cordially received. At last, hearing an Italian organ grinder in New York grind out "The Ivy Green" and "Woodman Spare that Tree", he ascertained from the man that the instrument had been made in Birmingham, and, thinking that probably that his songs were as popular in England as they were in America, he decided to return here and try his chances at home. He accordingly came back in 1840, and for 20 years - that is, up to the time of his retirement - his entertainments were an unqualified success, and his songs became universal favourites. On October 12 1891, after an absence from the stage of over 30 years, the veteran composer, then almost in his eightieth year, attended a "Henry Russell" night given at Convent Garden by Sir Augustus Harris, and was most enthusiastically greeted when, at the close, he appeared in the conductor's place and made a speech in acknowledgement of the cordial reception that had been given to the rendering of his songs, some of which, he mentioned, he had composed more than 60 years before.
Mr Russell was a man of very active disposition, and even as an octogenarian one of his favourite amusements was the making of small chests of drawers and other articles, as presents for his friends, in the carpenter's shop he had set up for himself in his pleasantly situated house at Maida Vale."
Note: Henry's family moved from Sheerness to London when he was very young. They lived next door t
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