Born at
Seend in Wiltshire, Bell was the oldest of the four recorded children of William Heward Bell (1849–1927) and Hannah Taylor Cory (1850–1942). His younger brother
Clive (1881–1964) was an art critic associated with the
Bloomsbury Group. The family was raised at Cleeve House, Seend, between
Melksham and
Devizes, Bell was educated at
Westminster School before training at the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. and was promoted to
lieutenant on 2 November 1898. Attached to the 87th battery
Royal Field Artillery (RFA), he served in the
Second Boer War, during which he was promoted to
captain on 16 November 1901. Following the end of the war he returned to the United Kingdom on the SS
Avoca in September 1902, and was stationed at
Newcastle with the battery as part of the 12th Brigade division RFA. He retired from the army in 1911, but rejoined on the outbreak of
World War I. He was re-elected in
1922, but at the
1923 election he was defeated by the
Liberal Party candidate
Eric Macfadyen. He became a
Deputy Lieutenant of the county in 1952, and also served as a
justice of the peace for Wiltshire. ==Personal life==