Walter Bell

Walter Bell CMG (7 November 1909 – 23 January 2004) was a diplomat, an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and also served in the security service (MI5). He provided a diplomatic link between Britain and America and later worked in security in various post-colonial nations. He was decorated with the Order of St Michael and St George and the US Medal of Freedom.

A biography by Jimmy Burns, A Faithful Spy, was published on 1 October 2023 by Chiselbury Publishing. "Drawing on previously undisclosed personal papers, this biography of Walter Bell gives a remarkable insight into the working of British Intelligence".

Early life Walter Fancourt Bell was the third and youngest child of the Rev George Fancourt Bell, the Anglican vicar of St Mary’s Riverhead, Kent, and Muriel Backhouse, a poet and artist. The Bell family descended from John Bell (1741-1831), bookseller, publisher and printer, and his son John Browne Bell, the founder of the News of the World. His grandfather Adolphus was editor of the newspaper.

MI6 Bell worked until 1945 in New York, Washington and London liaising with US government departments and agencies.

During the Second World War he served under William Stephenson in British Security Co-ordination, and fostered UK/US cooperation with the FBI and the nascent American intelligence service the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He was awarded the US Medal of Freedom at the end of WW2. From 1946-1948 he served as private secretary to Lord Inverchapel

MI5 Having transferred to MI5, which was responsible for security on British colonies, Bell served in Kenya as a security liaison officer from 1949-1952. He then transferred to India where he served as First Secretary at the British High Commission New Delhi until 1955. From 1957 to 1960 in the West Indies as the federation headed for self-government. From 1961 to 1967 he returned to Kenya for the transition to independence, becoming counsellor in the British High Commission in Nairobi. He was appointed CMG in the 1967 New Year Honours. There were no children. He died on 23 January 2004, aged 94.