[1][2][3] In 1884 he founded the students' representative council, inspired by a visit to the University of Strasbourg where he had learnt about the Studenten Ausschuss there.

[1][4] With James Avon Clyde, Bell was joint secretary of the SRC committee that raised the funds to build the Edinburgh University Union (now known as Teviot Row House).

[1] In 1888, with Walter Biggar Blaikie and Robert Tyndale Hamilton Bruce, he launched a weekly paper, the Scots Observer: An Imperial Review.

In 1889 W. E. Henley was recruited as editor, with writers including J. M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells and W. B. Yeats.

[1][6] In 1892 Bell married Isabella Cameron Gunn, and in 1894 he purchased the Temple Hall estate in Coldingham, Berwickshire.