They were hominids; it was I believe too early for homo sapiens, they were either Homo heidelbergensis or homo neaderthalensis. I am not sure which. Both were predecessors to modern man and confound the Genesis account.
The problem is that when you set yourself up as having all the answers it becomes impossible to react to developments intelligently. In Russell's day opposing evolution was a reasonable stance, simply the conservative view dismissing all these new fangled godless ideas. As the evidence piled up the WT dug in deeper and deeper and it became out of the question to make a u turn. They have to defend a more and more intractable position because of their inflexible refusal to accept the inevitable.
There was a time when it was thought that the more rigid and unbending a structure was, the more solid it would remain. Then came the earthquakes………………..