My brother-in-law, Nicholas Russell, the sixth Earl Russell, who has died of a heart attack aged 45, was a tireless campaigner for disability rights. Perhaps his greatest achievement, while he was campaigns officer for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, was to campaign successfully for guide dogs to be permitted in taxis, and the resulting legislation, Private Hire Vehicles (Carriage of Guide Dogs etc) Act 2002, was due, in large part, to his effective campaigning and his well-known, meticulous eye for detail.
Nicholas, like his grandfather, Bertrand Russell, was an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and like his father, Conrad Russell, the historian and Liberal Democrat peer, took a great interest in politics: Nicholas was a lifelong member of the Labour party.
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