George Bell was born at Shelford, Victoria, on 10 July 1882. He was the eldest of the large family of Lewis and Annie Bell (née Armstrong), who were among the early pioneering pastoralists of south-western New South Wales. From Scots College, Sydney where he was dux and captain, as well as playing centre forward in the first fifteen, he entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University in March 1901, obtained distinctions in his second, third and fourth year subjects, and passed his final examination in December 1905. He was appointed a junior resident medical officer at Sydney Hospital in 1906, and in 1907 a senior resident medical officer. He decided to enter general practice, and as his uncle, Dr George Armstrong, had rooms in College Street and was specializing in gynaecology and obstetrics, George shared his uncle's rooms. He remained in College Street in general practice till well after the conclusion of the first world war. In 1910 with a vacancy occurring for a relieving assistant honorary surgeon at Sydney Hospital, and excellent testimonials from the surgeons under whom he had worked as a resident medical officer, he received the appointment. When the first world war broke out, many members of the staff of Sydney Hospital were called up, and the junior members of the staff had to carry the full work; although George Bell enlisted, he was not allowed to leave Sydney Hospital till 1916, when some of the older men had returned. He went as a reinforcement medical officer on a troop transport, and on arrival in London reported to Horseferry Road, and was posted to the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Brighton. Here he met Henry Newland and became his surgical assistant. Towards the end of 1916, when fighting on the Western Front subsided and surgical casualties were few, Sir Earle Page, who was surgical specialist to the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, asked to be allowed to return to Australia. The vacancy of surgical specialist was filled by Henry Newland. Early in 1917 the 3rd ACCS was moved into the Somme area and located at Grevillers, about one mile from Bapaume. Newland asked George Bell to join as second in command (surgical). In mid-April the barrage went down, and the casualties came in thick and fast. Newland worked in 12-hour stretches and the other surgical teams likewise, except for George Bell, who did not work by the clock, but by the state of the receiving tent. About August this casualty clearing station received orders to move north to the Ypres salient, and settled at Brandhoek, midway between Poperinghe and Ypres. Here George Bell and Roger Holmes à Court did the first direct blood transfusions. There was no blood grouping, and the donors were all volunteers. When Newland went back to England Bell was appointed Surgical Specialist to the 1st ACCS. For his excellent work he received a mention in dispatches. In 1919 he was further honoured with the OBE (Military Division). In 1919 he returned to Australia and resumed general practice in College Street. In the same year he was appointed visiting surgeon to the Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick, a position he retained till 1947. In 1921 he was appointed surgeon to Sydney Hospital, and remained on the active staff until 1942, when he was appointed consulting surgeon. In 1929 he was appointed surgical consultant to the Royal Australian Navy officers in Sydney. In the second world war he was Honorary Surgeon Commander, Royal Australian Naval Reserve from 1941 to 1947, and held the rank of Honorary Captain, RANR, after 1947. During the war he was Deputy Chairman of the NEW State Medical Coordination Committee (1944-1942) and its Executive Officer (1942-1946). George Bell's work for the British Medical Association in Australia covered a generation. He was a member of the New South Wales Branch Council from 1925 to 1955 and was the branch treasurer from 1934 to 1955. He was a member of the Federal Council for 11 years, and was Federal Treasurer from 1935 to 1944 and Vice-Chairman from 1939 to 1944. He was President of the New South Wales Branch in 1931-1932, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Medical Association in 1965. In 1942 he was appointed a member of the Board of Sydney Hospital, and remained on the Board as an active member until his death. Being a great lover of the outback, he took an active interest in the Royal Flying Doctor Service and served on the Branch and Federal Councils of the service. He and a skilled technician were the only persons present in the transmission room when Queen Elizabeth II made her broadcast to the outback from Broken Hill in 1954. The Bush Nursing Association was another service to the outback in which he showed great interest, and he had been its President for the 15 years preceding his death. The Scottish Hospital was still another body of which he was a director. He was a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and was a member of its Council from 1938 to 1950 and its president from 1949 to 1951. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1958. George Bell continued to serve on committees and involved himself in philanthropic work long after he retired from active surgical practice. For the Postgraduate Committee in Medicine in the University of Sydney, he was honorary treasurer, he was a member of the Executive for nearly 25 years, and was Chairman in 1964. George Bell was also involved as honorary treasurer with the Australian Postgraduate Federation in Medicine, which was formed at the end of the second world war as a Federation of the postgraduate committees in the various States of the Commonwealth. When the Federation was incorporated under a new constitution in 1961, he played an active part in the deliberations which culminated in the adoption by the State committees of the Memorandum and Articles of Association under which the Federation now operates. He continued as honorary treasurer until he resigned in 1969. Bell's keen interest in the welfare of disabled service medical officers, and of the widows and dependents of medical officers who had suffered death or disablement because of war service, never flagged. He was a Trustee of both the Medical Officers' Relief Fund (Federal) and the Federal Medical War Relief Fund until his death. The first of these two funds had been established by the Federal Council of the BMA in Australia, and the second by the AMA after the two world wars. He was a big man physically, well over six foot, and weighed about 15 stone; and yet he handled patients young and old with gentleness and skill. He easily won the confidence and trust of all he contacted by his frankness and willingness to listen. He was never in a hurry, and he got through a large amount of work in the allotted time. His recreations were few, but he did enjoy a quiet game of golf at the Royal Sydney Golf Club. He read much and enjoyed theatre and good music. He had a simple Christian faith, and was a regular attendant at St Stephen's Church, Macquarie Street. In 1945 he married Adele Quinn, and for nearly 25 years he was sustained and encouraged in all he did by her help. Sir George Bell died of a heart attack on 22 August 1970 aged 88.