The Russellite group were the followers of Thomas Wallace Russell, an Irish political leader of the early twentieth century. Russell was the Liberal Unionist MP for South Tyrone. He and some followers left the party in February 1904. They favoured a policy of compulsory land purchase. Dod's Parliamentary Companion regarded them as ex-Liberal Unionists who had joined the Liberal Party, although Russell's two Parliamentary colleagues had been first elected as Independent Unionists and they did not seek re-election as Liberals in 1906.