R. S. Warren Bell

Robert Stanley Warren Bell was born in 1871 at Long Preston, Yorkshire, the eldest son of the Rev. George Edward Bell.[1][4] In 1875 his father was appointed Vicar of Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, and it was here that Robert spent most of his childhood. One of twelve children, his brothers included John Keble Bell who, under the pen name Keble Howard, also became a writer and journalist.[5] Robert was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead.[1]

In 1890 Bell began a career in journalism on Tit-Bits and afterwards joined the Evening News.[1] He became a contributor of stories and papers to The Pall Mall Gazette and The Westminster Gazette a number of which were subsequently published as The Papa Papers and The Cub in Love.[4]

Bell’s first novel was Bachelorland.[1][6] In 1898 he was appointed first editor of The Captain which published a number of school stories written by P. G. Wodehouse.[1][7] Bell himself contributed stories to The Captain including The Duffer, Cox's Cough Drops and Green at Greyhouse.[1][8][9][10]

Bell co-wrote Marie Corelli: the Writer and the Woman, a 1903 biography of novelist Marie Corelli, with Thomas F. G. Coates.

Bell retired from The Captain in 1910.[1] He wrote a short story, Company for George, which he turned into a play that was performed at the Kingsway Theatre in 1910 and he later adapted into a novel.[1][11] Most of his later work was directed towards the schoolboy market and featured stories set in schools.[3]

In 1905 Bell married Edithe M. Barry.[1]

Bell died aged 50 on 26 September 1921, after a long illness, in the Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.[12] His obituary in The Times stated that he would be 'much missed by his friends. as well as by his large constituency of schoolboy readers, who recognized in him a kindred spirit. He was very tall, standing over 6ft. 4in.'[1]