Harry Bell
1935-2001

The funeral service for Harry Bell was held on Monday 29th October 2001 at Linn
Crematorium. Humanist Minister Joe Hughes included the following account of
Harry’s life, created by family and friends.
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Henry Walker Bell, known to all as Harry, was born in Glasgow in 1935. His love
of things foreign manifested itself early in his life - as a small boy during the war
he regularly woke up sweating in the middle of the night - not from nightmares,
but from falling asleep wearing his treasured U.S. pilot’s fur-lined cap (complete
with earflaps).

From an early age he threw himself wholeheartedly into each new project. Having
decided to learn to swim, he attained his Life Saving Certificate in ten weeks after
endlessly practicing his strokes spread-eagled on a dining room chair. While his
boyhood pals were fans of the Rover, Harry was an ardent devotee of a comic
called The Adventure. An early adventure of Harry’s was a trip to Rowardennan,
aged 13, on his trusty bike that he christened Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse.
This gave him the first of many stamps in his Youth Hostel book. Indeed Harry
once calculated that he had spent more than 365 bed-nights in Youth Hostels all
round the world. And like any adventurer he enjoyed returning with traveller’s
tales. Upon returning from trip to Spain, enquiries about the wound on his leg
were answered solemnly with “I was gored by a bull”. Detailed examination at the
Victoria Infirmary uncovered a more mundane explanation - an insect bite that
had become infected.

Harry left school at 14 and shortly thereafter began his printing apprenticeship
working for the Nautical Press. After completing his apprenticeship he was called
up to the Black Watch regiment for his National Service. However, once he found
out the Parachute Regiment would be training in Cyprus he volunteered and was
accepted into the Paras. Years later he would be a Para again, this time in the
Territorial Army. The camaraderie of both fellow soldiers and his workmates in
the printing trade meant a tremendous amount to Harry throughout his life. After
his National Service, during which he saw action in the Suez Crisis, he was keen
to see even more of the world - and limited finances did not deter him. A 1959 trip
made by Harry and his friend Mike Lang was the subject of an article in the
Weekly Scotsman headlined “Israel and back - on £30”. By working in a kibbutz, in
a railway station and even by selling tablecloths, the two friends were able to
make a three-month trip starting with only £30.

Fittingly he met his future wife Maire on a holiday in Broadford Youth Hostel, Isle
of Skye, in 1957. After marrying in Edinburgh in 1960 the couple emigrated to
Canada, moving on to New York in 1961 and then in 1963 headed for the State of
Maine where they stayed for five years.

A daughter Sheila was born in Portland, Maine in 1965 and after returning home
to Scotland in 1968 their son Colin was born in 1969. While in Maine the couple
enjoyed the horseracing at the Scarborough Downs track, visiting the many
islands off the coast, and Harry was also able to develop his interest in art. His
habit of making sketches while on his travels led to a hobby of creating both
woodcuts and watercolours - he even exhibited at a couple of local galleries.

Upon returning to Scotland, and setting up home in East Kilbride, Harry would
keep the two small children entertained with a seemingly endless supply of stories
and songs. Sheila has fond memories of visits to the Kelvin Hall Carnival and
afternoons spent hunting down stamps and eating cockles in the Barras Market.
Colin remembers being fascinated by the Territorial Army books showing how to
recognise aircraft just from their silhouettes. He also remembers thinking a great
treat was the army rations of jam and condensed milk in little toothpaste-style
tubes that Harry would bring back from Territorial Army exercises.

Sheila was introduced to Youth Hostelling from an early age, spending her first
bed-night at Rowardennan, while Sheila and Colin enjoyed visits to the hostels in
Ambleside, Grassmere and Keswick in a 1977 holiday. That same year Harry
wrote and published Forgotten Footsteps. He went on to write two other books - a
Guide to the Haunted Castles of Scotland and an archaeology book called
Glasgow’s Secret Geometry. After years of visiting other countries Harry became
fascinated with the archaeology of Scotland.

There is a Chinese saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single
step. In 1981 Harry took that step along a new track when he joined the Glasgow
University Certificate Field Course in Archaeology. For the rest of his life he found
and became a part of a group of people who shared his love of the land, its people
and its history, and he held a very special place in their affections and respect.

In 1987 he was one of the founder members of the Association of Certificated Field
Archaeologists (ACFA). Participating in field work all over Scotland, enjoying each
others company from Mull to Minorca, Harry became a member of the publications
team on their Council, and the recorder of all their little foibles and failings as
"Glezca ACFA man" in a wonderful series of articles in their Newsletters over
many years. His reference to one friend as "a cartographically challenged buffoon"
is especially treasured.

Most of Harry's exploits and tales are now immortal among this group, not only
the ones recorded in "Glasgow's Secret Geometry", such as Colin and the ice cream
van, or his argument with an eminent Scottish archaeological authority on how a
four fingered man might hold a prehistoric axe heid - but the dozens of others, told
at many a convivial evening, deserve equal immortality. Can we imagine the
chapter headings if such a book had ever been written? - "In which our hero visits
India and loses his false teeth doon a cludgie" or "In which he has the facts of life
explained to him by a school chum". - the latter involved Polish soldiers and would
end with Harry performing a cross between a hop, a skip and a little Morris dance,
which would leave everyone helpless with laughter.

Harry was a man of immense wit, of great, if sometimes baffling convictions, of
considerable artistic and calligraphic skills in the little sketches, which always
came with a post or Xmas card. A man of great generosity, both open and private -
prints, etchings, books and music would be casually given without a murmur, and
only some of his close friends knew of the long years he contributed to Action Aid,
and the help he gave to hospitals in India and Africa for work which still goes on
today. Harry loved archaeology, he loved the people and most of all he loved the
land - he always wanted us to lift our eyes from the little patch of ground we would
be looking at, to the hills and what they meant to those who were here before us.
Above all he loved the landscape around his home city, from Duncolm to the Deil's
Plantin, from Camphill to Cathkin Braes. If you want to understand the man and
who he was then get out your old bike and cycle up to the Craw Stane or Carlin
Crags above Eaglesham, because that's where you'll find him. His work and his
spirit will always inspire the group of archaeologists who shared this part of his
life.

Other friends knew Harry both as a regular at folk clubs and as a great fan of trad
jazz - at the old Eglinton Arms jazz nights and latterly at the Bute Jazz festival
and other events. Both friends and workmates remember Harry not just as a good
company, but also as a generous spirit. He used his way with words to help several
colleagues with job applications, and helped others prepare their speeches when
they were “best man” at their friends’ weddings. Once Harry retired from the
printing trade in 1998 he was introduced to the World Wide Web and spent hours
crafting the text for his own web site - The Glasgow Network of Aligned Sites. He
was enchanted with his two granddaughters - Kirsty (born August 1998) and
Mairi Louise (born August 2001). Sadly illness denied Harry the comfortable
retirement he had earned from many years of hard work. After dealing with
Maire’s sudden death in July 2001 his own illness got progressively worse and he
passed away on Tuesday, October 23rd, at Hairmyres Hospital.

Like the circles that ripple outwards as a stone skips in the water so each person’s
life affects many others in ways they may not always realise. During his last few
weeks in hospital Harry was deeply moved by the many people that came to visit
him, remembering happy occasions or small acts of generosity, which they
remembered across the years. Old-time baseball manager Tug McGraw once
reminisced about his youth - “I spent three-quarters of my money on good times,
whiskey and horseracing - the rest I just wasted”. It is a sentiment Harry would no
doubt have agreed with. Rather than accumulate material things he wanted only
to share good times and experience all that life had to offer. In his sixty-five years
Harry Bell did both in full measure.

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This file can be downloaded as a Microsoft Word document from the link here
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More pictures of Harry can be found here