David Patrick Hamilton Russell (6 November 1938 – 17 August 2014) was a South African Anglican bishop.
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Life and ministry
Russell was educated at the University of Cape Town. Ordained in 1965, he was a chaplain to migrant workers. From 1975 to 1986 he was banned and house arrested by the South African Apartheid Government.
He was a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of St John's (now the Diocese of Mthatha) from 1986 to 1987 and then Bishop of Grahamstown until 2004.
Having been born in the late 1930s, Russell got immersed in the struggle against apartheid from an early age. He did his first degree at the University of Cape Town, and then studied for an MA at Oxford University. He did his training for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, England. He later obtained his PhD in Religious Studies (specialising in Christian Ethics) from the University of Cape Town.
Anti-apartheid activism
A lifelong activist, Russell, who died on 17 August 2014 after a long battle with cancer, was a friend of Steve Biko and many others fighting apartheid. His support assisted the Black Consciousness Movement in carrying out a number of projects, particularly those facilitated by the Black Community Programmes.