Russell Mitchelhill was born in East Melbourne on 19 September, 1899. He was one of four children, three bys and a girl, of David Cade Mitchelhill (1861-1931) and his wife Amy Ethel, nee Wade. Russell Mitchelhill was still a student when he enlisted on 20 November, 1917. He had served four years in the Senior Cadets in Brighton.He was 5' 5" in height with brown hair and brown eyes. By religion, he belonged to the Church of England.

Russell Mitchelhill probably trained at Broadmeadows and was placed with the 58th Battalion. Pethaps because of his youth, on 22 April, 1918, he was put on special duty with the Australian Medical Corps. On 5 June, he embarked on the H.M.A.T. Orontes from Sydney, disembarking at Liverpool, England, on 12 August 1918.

The Orontes was a steam ocean liner launched in 1812. In October 1916, the British Admiralty requistioned her for war duty. She did a number of voyages from England to  Australia, but as she had a refrigerated hold, was more use bringing perishable goods, especially as by mid-1918, with the fresh American forces since 1917, she was not needed as a troop shipp. In 1925, she was scrapped, though the name passed on to another ship in 1929. Russell Mitchelhill and the other recruits had a great voyage: warned that there was a German raider on the normal route, the Orontes had to divert to New york, in order to join an armed convoy fo American ships. She stopped first at Tahiti, arriving on 23rd June 1918, where the young recruits had a very happy time. The ship then went on New York, via the Panama Canal , which they reached on 12 July. From there, they sailed for New York, anchoring for two days at Brooklyn South harbour before leaving for England  on July 31 with 13 other transport ships and two cruisers. 

Russell Mitchelhill enjoyed the journey immensely. In New York he went up to the top of the 60 storey Woolwich Building, the highest building in New York at the time, walked up Fifth Avenue and Broadway and found the locals hospitable and pleasant, as he told the journalist from the Echuca and Moama Advertiser and Farmers Gazette after the war. He disembarked from the Orontes at Liverpool, England, on 12 August, 1918, and was sent to camp at Codford.  He returned to Australia on the H.T. Nestor on 4 November, 1919 and on 7 January, 1920, was discharged from further service.

In 1924, Russell Mitchelton married Evelyn Ruth Crothers. Going by the Electoral Records, from 11934-1937, the couple were living at  Moulamein, N.S.W. , where Russell was a grazierI. n 1939, they were living at Middle Brighton, but later moved to the country. B7 1977, they appeared to be living apart. He weas registered as living at 15 Allan St., Kyabram, Victoria, while Evelyn was living at Sherbrooke, Victoria. Russell moved to South Yarra in 1963 and was living at 22 Domain Rd., and working as a Manager. In 1980, he was in Kyabram, while Evelyn was still in Sherbrooke, at O'Connor St, The Patch. Evelyn died on 18 September, 1997, still at Sherbrooke. The family treeregisters Russell's death as unkonwn/