[1] He studied organ, violin and piano in London at the Royal Academy of Music along with composition under Frederick Corder, and modal counterpoint privately with Charles Villiers Stanford.
Bell founded the Little Theatre, a training center for opera, and occasionally directed the Cape Town Music Society.
His Symphonic Variations received its first performance in Cape Town in August 1917, but was not heard in London until 24 February 1921 when Bell conducted it during a trip back to England.
These, according to John Joubert, who took private composition lessons from Bell from 1942–46, were probably provided by Percival Kirby, Professor of Music at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
[12] Bell's 70th birthday was celebrated in the UK with a BBC broadcast of the 1941 Symphonic Fantasy Aeterna munera as well as the Arcadian Suite on 20 August 1943.