Papers of Harry E. Bell

Bell's papers as represented in this collection comprise letters from colleagues, friends and New College pupils, many of whom turned to him for guidance as well as for employment references. Their letters make it clear that his encouragement and pastoral care, and the hospitality of all members of the Bell family (Harry, his wife Edith, son Timothy and daughter Honor) were of great importance to them. Not surprisingly, quite a number of his students took up archives as a career, or joined sections of the Civil Service.

Henry Esmond Bell was born on 10 Jan 1913. He attended Bradford Grammar School in West Yorkshire before progressing as a scholar to St John's College Cambridge where he gained a first in History. He started work in the Public Record Office in 1935 as a temporary assistant keeper. There he took on reorganizing and listing the records of the Court of Wards and Liveries, a court established during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1937 he became a Lecturer in History in the Newcastle Division at the University of Durham, an occupation he maintained until he joined the army in 1940.
During World War II, Bell served with the Army Education Corps and was attached to the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) division in Italy as an Archives Officer. He arrived in Bologna, Italy on 21 Apr 1945 and served under the guidance of fellow Monuments Man Sir Hilary Jenkinson, implementing Jenkinson's archival protection plan for archival materials in the Emilia and Venezie regions. Prior to his assignment in Italy, Bell worked with Jenkinson on German archival lists.
At the end of the war and immediately thereafter, records were being carelessly rushed to their repositories by the Italian government and the involved Allied military units. Bell worked with the newly-reinstated Italian Archive Services and personally toured the country and its archival repositories with Italian officials to secure safe transfers of documents. From Sep until Nov 1945 he oversaw the proper transportation of archival material to Rome. This period is recorded by Bell in the volume he co-authored with Jenkinson - Italian Archives during the War and at its Close (1947) – which outlined the many dangers that archives were subjected to during the war.
Bell came to New College in 1946 to teach medieval history. He continued his research of the Ward Court which he published as the highly-praised An Introduction to the History and Records of the Court of Wards and Liveries in 1953. He soon became Senior History Tutor, saw the post-war undergraduate bulge through the college, and became Librarian in succession to David Ogg in 1956.

Bell's private life knew both success and tragedy. He had married Edith Margaret McDowell in 1937 and their son Timothy was drowned, aged 16, in a boating accident in April 1956 [see The Times 9 Apr 1956]. Their daughter Honor in due course went to Trinity College, Dublin, where male tutors taught her. Watching her progress, convinced Bell that NC ought to consider admitting women to the college, a point which he raised at a meeting of the SGM in 1963.
The family moved in 1956 to Stanton St John, a NC parish, where Bell became active in village affairs and leadership. In 1959, he was invited to the United States as a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina. Bell's health was not always robust and he died from angina on 27 Aug 1964: see the obituary in New College Record 1963-4, pp. 1-2.

The papers remain in Bell's original filing order, with the large number of strays integrated into the main series (section 3). The collection comprises three sections:

1 Correspondence between Bell and fellows of Winchester College about successful candidates for closed scholarships to New College, 1952-1963.

2 Correspondence between Bell and members of the Civil Service Foreign Office Co-ordination Department, about New College men who might be suitable to go into intelligence work, 1956-1963.

3. Correspondence with undergraduates for whom Bell had acted as their subject tutor, college tutor, or as New College's Tutor for Admissions. Some include Bell's testimonials for employment; all reveal the former students' appreciation of his concern, friendship and advice. They are arranged alphabetically by surname of the student concerned, and span the years 1948-1962.

Open for consultation

Given to New College by his widow after Harry Bell's death in 1964.

The papers were boxed and partially listed in 1984 by Caroline Dalton; weeding and completion of the summary list was carried out by Jennifer Thorp in 2018.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Librarian, New College Oxford (e-mail archives@new.ox.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Weeded for duplicates and inconsequential items.

None anticipated.

Published works by H.E. Bell:
Italian archives during the war and at its close, with Sir Hilary Jenkinson (HMSO, 1947).
'The protection of archives: some lessons from the war in Italy', Indian Archives, vol. 4 (1950).
An introduction to the history and records of the Court of Wards and Liveries, (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1953).
Maitland, a critical assessment (London 1965).
Historical essays 1600-1750 presented to David Ogg, edited jointly with R.L. Ollard (London: Charles Black, 1964).

Articles
'The Savilian Professors' house and Halley's Observatory in Oxford', Notes and Records of the Royal Society vol. 16, no. 2 (1961).
'The History of Stanton St John', in Victoria County History of Oxfordshire vol 5, Bullingdon Hundred (1967).

Pamphlet (anonymous)
The Treasures of New College Oxford (Oxford, nd).

Unpublished work
Longwall Papers (typescript): NCA 10268
Victorian Builders at New College (typescript): NCA 3593