Patricia Russell, was the third wife of the philosopher Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

. She was a significant contributor to Russell's work, History of Western Philosophy

History of Western Philosophy (Russell)

A History of Western Philosophy by the philosopher Bertrand Russell is a conspectus of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the early 20th century. Although criticised for its over-generalization and its omissions, particularly from the post-Cartesian period, it was a popular...

.

Russell met Spence in 1930 when she was a twenty-year old undergraduate at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, hired by Russell's second wife Dora Black as a governess

Governess

A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...

. As her parents had always wanted a boy, she was known as 'Peter'. Russell had an affair with her, eventually marrying her at Midhurst

Midhurst

Midhurst is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, with a population of 4,889 in 2001. The town is situated on the River Rother and is home to the ruin of the Tudor Cowdray House and the stately Victorian Cowdray Park...

 registry office on 18 January 1936.

Russell and Peter had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell

Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell

Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell was a British historian and politician. His parents were the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and Patricia Russell...

, 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

party.

They had an acrimonious separation in 1949.