Bell of africa
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WMD " Karamoja " Bell and his rifle maker
“Karamojo Bell “, a name anyone with even a slight interest in rifle marksmanship will have heard of .
Walter Maitland Dalrymple Bell was a truly remarkable product of the Victorian age . His autobiography ,”Bell of Africa “ published posthumously , should be read , whether you have an interest in Africa , Big Game and adventure , or not . He lived at least 9 lives in one and opens what appears to be an honest , no frills door on the last knockings of colonilisation of the last remote corners of “the dark continent “
The great game warden Bruce Kinloch met and stayed with Bell in 1950 , an account of that stay is contained within " The Shamba Raiders " by Kinloch and will throw more light on the man at the centre of this story who , as you'll read , built light weight 318 s for Bell , however i digress from this previously untold account
This young Walter Bell ventured into what was regarded as the dangerous and hostile territory of “Karamoja “ in North east Uganda in 1901 when he was just 21 . He proved to the indi
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The Great “Karamojo” Bell
Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell was ruined for civilized living by reading books. It happens. Some of us take a perilous step in our youth, crack a Will Henry tale, or read Allan W. Eckert and Vardis Fisher and we’re never the same…
Born in 1880, young Bell fed himself on the dime novel heroics of Dead Shot Dick . On the strength of that infatuation, he left his Scottish home for the Dakota Territory. Poorly equipped, broke and inexperienced, he made it only as far as the train station. He was seven years old.
Young Bell’s literary tastes evolved — to the works of Sir William Gordon-Cumming, one of the early prototypes of the British gentleman hunter in Africa.
“Had my guardians realized what Gordon-Cumming’s writings would do to me, they would have bought and destroyed every available copy of his works in a hundred-mile radius.”
Bell’s mother had died from complications of childbirth when he was just three years old; his father died when he was 14. That left Bell’s siblings in the unenviable position of guardian to a teenager who was determined t
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W. D. M. Bell
Scottish adventurer, soldier, and fighter pilot
W. D. M. Bell | |
|---|---|
Bell's photograph for his pilot's license, 1915 | |
| Born | Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell 8 September 1880[1] Clifton Hall near Edinburgh |
| Died | 30 June 1954(1954-06-30) (aged 73) Corriemoillie, Garve, Ross-shire[2] |
| Pen name | Karamojo Bell |
| Occupation | big game hunter, adventurer, soldier, and aviator |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Genre | autobiography, travel, adventure |
Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell (8 September 1880 – 30 June 1954), known as Karamojo Bell after the Karamoja sub-region in Uganda, which he travelled extensively, was a Scottish adventurer, big game hunter in East Africa,[3] soldier, decorated fighter pilot, sailor, writer, and painter.
Famous as one of the most successful ivory hunters of his time, Bell was an advocate of accurate shot placement with smaller calibre rifles, over the heavy large-bore rifles his contemporaries used for big African game.
He improved his hunting skills by the dissecti
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