Idris Bell

{{Short description|Museum curator, a British papyrologist and a scholar of Welsh literature}} {{Distinguish|Harold Bell}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = | name = Sir Idris Bell | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CB|OBE}} | image = Harold Idris Bell.jpg | image_size = | alt = Image of Idris Bell | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = Harold Idris Bell | birth_date = {{birth date|1879|10|02}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1967|01|22|1879|10|02}} | death_place = | death_cause = | nationality =  | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater =  | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = Literature, Papyrology | sub_discipline = Welsh-language literature | workplaces =  | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = | main_interests = Art curation | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Sir Harold Idris Bell''' {{Postnominals|country=UK|size=100%|CB|OBE}} (2 October 1879 – 22 January 1967) was a British museum curator, papyrologist (specialising in Roman Egypt) and scholar of Welsh literature.

Bell was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire to an English father and a Welsh mother. His maternal grandfather, John Hughes of Rhuddlan, was a Welsh speaker.<ref name=":0">Thomas Parry (2001). [https://biography.wales/article/s2-BELL-IDR-1879 Bell, Sir Harold Idris (1879–1967), scholar and translator]. In ''Dictionary of Welsh Biography''.</ref> He was educated at Nottingham High School and Oriel College, Oxford. In 1903,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27562 |date=9 June 1903 |page=3650 }}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27572 |date=3 July 1903 |page=4196 }}</ref> he joined the British Museum as an assistant in the Department of Manuscripts and remained there his entire working life, becoming Deputy Keeper of the Department in 1927<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33332 |date=25 November 1927 |page=7537 }}</ref> and Keeper in 1929.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33521 |date=30 July 1929 |page=4996 }}</ref> He retired in 1944, and in 1946 he went to live at Aberystwyth, naming his house Bro Gynin, a sign of his respect for the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym.<ref name=":0" />

Bell was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours for his wartime services as editor of the Food Supplement of the Daily Review of the Foreign Press. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1936<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34296 |date=23 June 1936 |page=3998 |supp=y }}</ref> and was knighted in 1946.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37502 |date=15 March 1946 |page=1387 }}</ref> He was president of the International Association of Papyrologists from 1947 to 1955. He was elected corresponding member of several Continental and American learned societies, and was awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Wales, Liverpool, Michigan and Brussels. In 1932 the British Academy elected him a Fellow, and he was president from 1946 to 1950.<ref name=":0" /> As president in these post-war years, he worked hard to re-establish scholarly links and co-operation across Europe, especially in his own field of papyrology.<ref>Pasquale Massimo Pinto: 'Harold Idris Bell (1879-1967), in ''Hermae: scholars and scholarship in papyrology II'' / edited by Mario Capasso. Pisa, Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2010, pp. 31-36</ref>

He was also a poet and translator.<ref>See [http://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2016/02/sir-harold-idris-bell-1879-1967.html Forgotten Poets of the First World War]</ref> His son, David Bell, with whom he translated the works of Dafydd ap Gwilym in 1942, was the curator of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Idris}} Category:1879 births Category:1967 deaths Category:People from Epworth, Lincolnshire Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Category:Employees of the British Library Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:British classical scholars Category:British Egyptologists Category:Welsh literature Category:Presidents of the British Academy Category:Presidents of The Roman Society Category:British papyrologists Category:People educated at Nottingham High School Category:English people of Welsh descent