| Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1880 Clifton Hall near Edinburgh |
| Died | June 1954 |
| Pen name | W.D.M. Bell (Karamojo Bell) |
| Occupation | big game hunter, adventurer, soldier and aviator |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Genres | autobiography, travel, adventure |
Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell (1880–1954), known as Karamojo Bell, was a Scottish adventurer, a big game hunter in East Africa,[1] soldier, decorated pilot, sailor, writer and painter.
Bell was an advocate of the importance of shooting accuracy, at a time when maximum firepower was the most common technique. He improved his shooting skills by careful dissection and study of the anatomy of the skulls of the elephants he shot. He even perfected the clean shooting of elephants from the extremely difficult position of being diagonally behind the target, and this shot became known as the Bell Shot.[2]
Although chiefly known for his exploits in Africa, he also travelled to North America and New Zealand, sailed windjammers, and saw service in southern Europe during World War I.
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He was born into a wealthy family of Scottish and Manx ancestry, on the family estate near Clifton Hall, Edinburgh in 1880.[3] Walter was the second-youngest of 10 children. His mother died when he was 2 years old and his father died when he was 6. He was brought up by his elder brothers, but ran away from several schools, and once hit his school captain over the head with a cricket bat.[4] At the age of 13 he went to sea.[5] In 1897 at the age of 17 he hunted lions for the Uganda Railway using a single-shot .303.[5][6]
Shooting lions didn't pay well,[7] so Bell spent a short time panning for gold in the Yukon gold rush,[8] where he earned a living by shooting game to supply Dawson City with meat. He joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles during the Boer War.[9] Bell was captured when his horse was shot from under him but escaped and managed to get back to British lines.
After the war ended in 1902, Bell remained in Africa and became a professional elephant hunter. Over sixteen years spent in Africa, he hunted in Uganda, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Central Africa and West Africa.
He became known as “Karamojo” Bell (Sometimes spelt Karamoja) because of his safaris through this remote wilderness area in North Eastern Uganda.[10]
Bell shot over 1,500 elephants during his career[11]. He was noted for using high speed, smaller calibre bullets[12][13] rather than the slow speed, larger calibre bullets that were popular with other big game hunters.[14] The bulk of his kills were made with Rigby manufactured copies of Mauser rifles in 7x57mm calibre. 300 were killed with Mannlicher-Schoenauer 6.5x54mm[6] carbines, and 200 with a .303 British.[15] He insisted on using military Full Metal Jacket bullets weighing from approx 150 to 200 grains, rather than the 400+ grain bullets popular at the time[8] Bell refused to use soft point bullets under any circumstances.[16]
He re-enlisted in World War I, and became a pilot in Tanganyika (present day Tanzania). It is reputed that he only flew alone so that he could take pot-shots at enemy aircraft with his rifle without other crew getting in the way.
Bell was decorated with the Military Cross twice for service in Greece and France and finished the war with the rank of Captain.
His safaries continued into the early 1920s, gaining a large fortune from the ivory he collected.
Bell retired to Scotland and began writing several books about his exploits.
During World War II, he was involved in Operation Dynamo, sailing his yacht in to Dunkirk to rescue British and French troops.
Walter Bell spent his later years writing and painting, using some of his paintings as illustrations in his books.
Bell died 30th June 1954. [17]