AmieLearmonth67: Adding The Data From Scratch - done

2025-09-20T12:59:34Z

Adding The Data From Scratch - done

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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name =Horace Bell
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 17 June 1839
| birth_place = 81 [[Guilford Street]], [[London]], [[England]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1903|4|10|1839|6|17|df=y}}
| death_place = 114 [[Lexham Gardens]], [[Brompton, London|Brompton]], London, England
| burial_place =
| party =
| occupation = Civil engineer<br>Writer
| parents = George Bell,<br>Frances Dude/Bell
| spouse = Marcia Napier Ogilvy/Bell (1850-1940)
| children = 4s, 5d
| website =
}}
'''Horace Bell''' (17 June 1839 – 10 April 1903) was an English [[civil engineer]].<ref name=DNBHoraceBell>{{cite web| title=Bell, Horace (1839–1903)| first=William Fellows| last=Sedgwick| date=1912| work=Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement| volume=1 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Bell,_Horace_%28DNB12%29&oldid=4436636| page=131| accessdate=24 July 2015}}</ref> As his career progressed he also became increasingly prolific as an author.<ref name=odnbHB/>

After eight years working in England as a railway engineer Bell relocated to [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|British India]] (as it was known at the time), where he was in charge of several major railway and related construction projects. He retired in 1894 after which he returned, this time permanently, to England, but he continued to work for several Indian railway companies on a consultancy basis.<ref name=ICEnGrace>{{cite web| url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Horace_Bell| title=Obituary: Horace Bell| date=1903| accessdate=24 July 2015| publisher=[[Institution of Civil Engineers]] and Grace's Guide to British Industrial History}}</ref>

He wrote several pamphlets and books on railways policy, later also producing lengthy pamphlets on Economics and on Governance which were used as teaching material in government schools.<ref name=odnbHB>{{cite ODNB| id=30689| title=Bell, Horace (1839–1903)| origyear=2004| year=2006| last=Kerr| first=Ian}}</ref>

==Life==
===Provenance and education===
Horace Bell was born the son of a London merchant, George Bell and his wife, Frances. He was christened at [[St Pancras Old Church]] in London.<ref name=rootsweb>{{cite web| url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kosmoid&id=I8037| title=Horace Bell| publisher=RootsWeb.com WorldConnect Program & Roger Kosmoid| accessdate=24 July 2015}}</ref> The boy was educated in [[Louth, Lincolnshire|Louth]] in Lincolnshire and overseas, in France.<ref name=DNBHoraceBell/> Half a century later an obituary would describe him as a "fluent French scholar".<ref name=ICEnGrace/>

===Early career===
When he was 15 Bell embarked on an engineering apprenticeship with John Wilson in [[Westminster]], but soon he moved on to work for the firm D. Cook & Co in Glasgow, in order to gain a broader experience in the engineering field.<ref name=odnbHB/> He then took a job with the [[Caledonian Railway]] company, working both in the company workshops and on surveying for railway line construction.<ref name=ICEnGrace/> In 1859 he returned to England, working till 1862 as en assistant engineer for the newly created [[London, Chatham and Dover Railway]] company.<ref name=DNBHoraceBell/>

===India===
On 7 July 1862 he joined the Indian public works department as an assistant engineer, initially on a trial basis, and arriving in India at the end of the year.<ref name=odnbHB/> In India he was sent to the [[Central Provinces]] region, where he worked under the direction of J.S. Heyman on the building of the [[Great Deccan Road]], part of a strategically important piece of road infrastructure linking the cities then known as [[Calcutta]] and [[Bombay]].<ref name=ICEnGrace/> He was employed on the Great Deccan Road project for eight years, between 1862 and 1870, achieving a succession of promotions during the period, in March 1869 becoming Second Grade Executive Engineer.<ref name=ICEnGrace/> His name appears in connection with frequent commendations in official reports provided to and by imperial administrators of the period.<ref name=ICEnGrace/>

The establishment during [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo|Lord Mayo's]] term as [[Governor-General of India|viceroy]], of the State Railway Service in May 1870 heralded a period of great railway expansion across India, which would have the effect of transforming a series of regionally based services into a national network. Horace Bell was one of the first engineers appointed to the new Service. In 1870 he was part of the survey team for new railways in the [[Chanda Nagar|Chanda]] and [[Wardha Junction railway station|Wardha]] valleys.<ref name=odnbHB/> There followed a succession of surveying commissions through the rest of the 1870s, including the [[Indore State Railway]] (1870), the [[Punjab Northern State Railway]] (opened 1874), the [[Rajputana-Malwa Railway]] (1875), the [[Sindia State Railway]] (1876) and the [[Rutlam Neemuch Nusserabad Railway]] (1878).<ref name=ICEnGrace/> He took an [[Furlough|extended break]] in England between April 1873 and December 1874:<ref name=ICEnGrace/> it was during the summer of 1874 that he married Marcia Napier Ogilvy at [[Wandsworth]] (south London).<ref name=BellOgilvyHoc>{{Cite web| url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=KfdAtEXKF94D3x%2Fuaj2cQg&scan=1| title=Index entry| accessdate=25 July 2015| work=FreeBMD| publisher=ONS}}</ref> The marriage produced nine recorded children, although five of these would predecease their father.<ref name=odnbHB/>

Another [[Furlough|stint in England]] took place between July 1880 and November 1881. During this time he is listed as a tutor of students on the "practical course" at the [[Royal Indian Engineering College]] near Egham,<ref name=ICEnGrace/> to the south-west of London. Professional advancement continued through and beyond the 1880s. In January 1880 Bell became a superintending engineer third class, and following successive further promotions, in January 1892 he became a chief engineer third class.<ref name=odnbHB/>

Between 1881 and 1884, as Engineer in Chief of the [[Dacca Mymensingh State Railway]], he was in charge of a succession of surveys for the important [[Narayanganj–Bahadurabad Ghat line]] which would be completed later in the decade.<ref name=ICEnGrace/> Further appointments of a similar nature followed in rapid succession. For much of the four-year period till March 1888 he was employed with the [[Tirhut Railway|Tirhoot State Railway]], receiving particular commendation from the authorities in connection with the Gunduck Bridge, constructed as part of the new line in 1887.<ref name=ICEnGrace/> During this time he also served, briefly, as acting director in charge of the [[North Western Railway (British India)|North-Western Railway]].<ref name=odnbHB/>

In August 1890 he moved to [[Calcutta]], taking a position in August 1892 with the colonial government as a consulting engineer for state railways.<ref name=odnbHB/> He retained this position till his retirement in June 1894.<ref name=odnbHB/> However, there was an interruption between January and April 1893 during which he was instead employed, briefly, as the acting Director General of Railways in India.<ref name=ICEnGrace/>

===Active retirement===
Following his retirement Horace Bell returned to England, while remaining in close touch with railway construction in India. Companies retaining his services on a consultancy basis included the [[Southern Punjab Railway]] and the [[Nilgiri Mountain Railway|Nilgiri mountain rack railway]], although he died by the time the latter railway had been completed. Closer to home, he provided consultancy services in respect of the Marconi radio masts (''"wireless station"'') erected at [[Poldhu]] on the extreme south-west of England.<ref name=odnbHB/>

Bell had been a full member of the London-based [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] since 1872, and in 1897 he was elected to its council, remaining a council member for six years.<ref name=odnbHB/>

===Death===
Through most of his life Horace Bell enjoyed robust good health, but an influenza attack in 1902 mutated into heart disease. He died in west London on 10 April 1903.<ref name=ICEnGrace/>

==The writer==
Horace Bell produced a number of pamphlets and articles on railway policy. His book, "Railway Policy in India", was published in 1894.<ref name=railpolIndHB>{{cite book| title=Railway Policy in India|first=Horace| last=Bell| publisher=Rivington, Percival & Company, digitised by the University of Michigan in 2006| isbn=978-1143215261| date=1894}}</ref> Possibly more unexpected were his primers on basic economics, "The Laws of Wealth" (first published 1883)<ref name=LawsofWealth>{{cite book| title=The Laws of Wealth: A Primer on Political Economy for the Middle Classes in India| first=Horace| last=Bell| publisher=W. Thacker & Co, London & Calcutta| date=1890}}</ref> and on government "The Government of India: a Primer" (3rd edition, 1893), both of which were subsequently used as teaching material in Indian state schools.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Horace}}
[[Category:English civil engineers]]
[[Category:British railway civil engineers]]
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1903 deaths]]
[[Category:Engineers from London]]

Horace Bell (engineer) - Revision history

AmieLearmonth67: Adding The Data From Scratch - done