See the sedate, mild-mannered-looking in the photo above? He looks like a banker, maybe, or an accountant. Perhaps a shopkeeper.
Who he was, however, was someone very different. This 1915 photo depicts Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, a Scottish adventurer, big game hunter, prospector, fighter pilot, competition sailor, and one of history’s premiere bad****s.
I use this term ironically, of course. The subject of this piece is a product of his time and should be judged accordingly. In today’s world, there is a distinct tendency to downplay the value of general manliness, and as we look at heroic men throughout history, one standard shall always apply:
They must have had grit. True grit. Bell had that and more.
Origins
Born in 1880 to a wealthy family of mixed Scots and Manx descent, Bell lost both parents before his tenth birthday. His older brothers attempted to raise the fractious…
