Born in Sydney, New South Wales; he came of a Yorkshire family long established near Leconfield in the East Riding, and of the large estate once possessed by them, he retained to the last a small portion. Educated at a private school in Jersey, after his family had returned to England, and at King’s College School, he entered King’s College as a medical student in 1859 and was a private pupil of Henry Smith (qv). He obtained the Leathes’ Prize and held various offices at the Hospital and College, including the House-Surgeoncy and then the Assistant Demonstratorship of Anatomy, the Surgical Registrarship and Administratorship of Anaesthetics. He was also Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. On his return to London after a period of professional study in Vienna and Paris, he came under the observation of Sir William Fergusson, who made Bell his constant associate in private practice. The two remained friends till Fergusson’s death, and Bell always spoke of Fergusson with the utmost reverence. He was appointed Surgeon to the St Pancras and Northern Dispensary, and, in 1877, Surgeon to King’s College Hospital with charge of out-patients and several beds. He was also appointed, in 1877, Demonstrator of Operative Surgery. In January, 1886, he fainted in the presence of his class when giving his customary demonstration, and on Whit Monday, 1886, when on a visit to Folkstone, he had a cerebral haemorrhage, and died on June 15th, 1886, sixteen hours later without recovering consciousness. He was buried at the Brompton Cemetery. His address latterly had been 12 Queen Anne Street, W. Bell was unmarried, and his two sisters had resided with him. Of his two brothers, at the time of his death, one was a medical practitioner in the Isle of Wight and the other was Lieut-Colonel Mark Bell, VC, RE. Besides the offices above mentioned at King’s College, Mr Royes Bell had been Hon Secretary, Hon Librarian, and Lettsomian Lecturer of the Medical Society of London. He was also a member of the Pathological Society of London. Publications: “Injuries and Diseases of the Male Genital Organs” in Ashhurst’s *Encyclopaedia of Surgery*, vi [published after his death]. Lettsomian Lectures on “Diseases of the Testis and their Coverings,” 1882. “Case of Excision of Proximal Phalanx of Right Thumb for Enchondroma.” – *Lancet*, 1872, ii, 346. Various papers in the *Med. Times and Gaz*. and *Lancet*.