Teacher, councillor and writer Ken dies, aged 91

A LEICESTER Law School lecturer, Mercury correspondent, Glenfield Gazette proprietor and long-serving Glenfield parish councillor has died at the age of 91.

Former teacher, reporter and author Ken Russell, pictured, was a column writer and Glenfield correspondent for the Leicester Mercury for many years, with journalism Ken’s second career after he took early retirement from lecturing.

He founded the Glenfield Gazette community newspaper in 1985, and only stepped down as editor at the age of 90 in 2020.

During those 35 years he covered many neighbourhood stories and events and developed his interest in local history.

This inspired his campaigns to conserve village heritage. Some of these, like his fight to save the village blacksmith’s forge, were brought to wider attention in the Mercury.

It also motivated him to write four much-loved Lives and Times history books on Glenfield, to preserve the memories and photos for future generations.

His wife, Nichola Pell, said: “Ken very well known in our village of Glenfield and surrounding areas, and in Leicester itself where he lectured in law at what is now De Montfort University. He also mentioned to me that the city mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, was a student of his at one point at, I believe, teacher training college.”

Ken was a Tigers fan and was a rugby correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph. He was also hockey correspondent for the Birmingham Mercury and contributed to the sports pages of the Birmingham Evening Post.

Before journalism, his first career was in teaching. He worked his way through various roles to principal lecturer in the Law School at what was then Leicester Polytechnic.

Along the way, he gained his PhD for his research thesis, Complaints Against The Police, to become Dr Russell. As a criminologist he had an early interest in electronic tagging and bracelets.

He edited academic journal The International Review of Law, Computers and Technology until 2018.

He tackled scores of contentious issues across his careers. Many arose in his role as a local councillor.

Newly elected to the district council in his birthplace of Brierley Hill, he ignored all advice to listen quietly for a year. He was ahead of his time in the 1950s with his radical approach to the local “gypsy problem” when he sought permanent sites for the families, rather than continually moving them on.

He served as Glenfield Parish councillor for over 40 years, and was chairman in 1996. There were some turbulent times through this period. He was even reported to Special Branch in 1995 by disgruntled rivals for alleged election irregularities before being swiftly exonerated.

Ken died peacefully in October. He is survived by his wife Nichola and son Anthony, and leaves his daughter Nicola, son Simon, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren from an earlier marriage.