Robert Duncan Bell

Bell was the son of William Bell, a typesetter with the Edinburgh Evening News, and his wife, Christina Beveridge Malcolm. The family lived at 3 Gladstone Terrace in the Grange, Edinburgh, close to The Meadows.^[2] In 1905, Bell moved to India as a junior civil servant.^[3] He was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council in the 1920s and present during the Bombay Riots of 1928/29.^[4]

Bell became Acting Governor of Bombay on 30 May 1936, after Governor Lord Brabourne went on leave with his wife, Lady Brabourne. Bell was sworn in with a 17-gun salute.^[5]

Bell is buried with his parents in Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh. The grave lies just to the west of the north face of the central vaults.

• "Colonial administrators and post-independence leaders in India (1616–2000)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)