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Name: BELL, Henry Hesketh Joudou GCMG, Sir
Birth Date: 17 Dec 1864 Chambery, Savoy, France
Death Date: 1 Aug 1952 Kensington, London
First Date: 1905
Last Date: 1909
Profession: Entered Colonial Civil Service, W. Indies 1882, Senior Asst. Treasurer Gold Coast 1891, Receiver General and a MEC Bahamas 1894, Administrator of Dominica 1899. The first Governor of Uganda, 1906-09
Area: Uganda
Married: Unmarried
Author: 'Glimpses of a Governor's Life' 1946
Book Reference: Gillett, Cuckoo, Debrett, Moyse, Colonial, Playne, Drumkey, UJ, EAHB 1907, Chandler
School: Brussels and Paris
General Information:
Governor of N. Nigeria 1909, of Leeward Islands 1912 and of Mauritius 1915, GCMG 1925
Uganda Journal - Vol 22, p. 186 - Group photograph of Uganda officials November 1907.
See entry in Wikipedia.
Naturalised British 23 Nov 1894
C.A. Wiggins, 'Early Days in British East Africa and Uganda', Bodleian Library Mss. 740.12.r.44 He imported a trained elephant from India, complete with its mahout. The idea was to show the Baganda what could be done with elephants, but he did not keep it long because it was very expensive feeding it, mostly on sugar can,e and the mahout blackmailed the government nearly every month for an increase in pay, threatening to return to India. Bell took it on safaris with him to show that elephants could be used after taming, but he sent it back to Entebbe after two days as all the natives, including the chiefs, crowded round the animal and mahout, evidently considering the mahout a far bigger man than the governor. It was sold to some circus or zoo.
He was ordained in 1943, at the age of sixty-six.