Note 9 — REGIMENTAL LISTS.

Afterwards Gen. Sir Wm. Bell, K.C.B. Col.-comdt. R.H.A. His father was Wm. Bell, a native of Tanfield, Yorkshire, a cornet in the Yeomanry, but a surgeon by profession, who had a good practice in Ripon, and was twice mayor of that town. His mother was Ann Atkinson, one of the daughters of Henry Atkinson, town clerk of Ripon. The way W. Bell became an artilleryman was as follows:—“Old Col. Quist of the R.A., head of the riding establishment (who belonged to a Dutch family), came to Ripon to buy horses when Bell was a boy in his teens, and happening to meet the youth in Ripon society, he took a fancy to him.” Col. Quist used his interest in obtaining for Bell a nomination to a cadetship at Woolwich Academy. In due course Bell obtained a commission in the R.A., and soon evinced that he 211had a talent for “the music of war.” He served in the West Indies from 1807–1810, and was present at the capture of several of the West Indian islands. Served in the Pa. from July, 1813, to 1814, and was present at five general actions. Slightly wounded at Toulouse. His duties were very onerous both at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, where he was employed in conveying instructions and orders to officers commanding batteries in all parts of the field. He had the narrowest escape of being crushed to death, in after life, that ever befell anyone. “He fell from his horse in front of a battery of R.H.A. at Norwich (or Ipswich), and the battery going over him at a gallop, the drag-shoe of one of the guns knocked his ear off!” Sir W. Bell resided during the latter part of his life at Ripon, and d. there, unm., 28th March, 1873. Buried at Tanfield. M.I. (The above is from information supplied by the late Gen. W.H. Askwith, R.A.)