Arthur Lynden-Bell


Sir Arthur Lynden Lynden-Bell, was a British Army officer.

Early life

Lynden-Bell was the son of Major-General Thomas Lynden Lynden-Bell and younger brother of Colonel Charles Perceval Lynden-Bell. He was educated at Clifton College."Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p88: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948

Military career

He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Buffs in May 1885. After promotion to Captain on 31 January 1894, he served the following year on the North West Frontier of British India and attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1898. A year later, he saw active service in the Second Boer War, commanding a mounted infantry contingent of the Buffs.
In 1900, he became a Staff Captain for intelligence in the War Office and a year later was made Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-General for intelligence at the War Office on 20 July 1901. He was promoted to Major on 3 May 1902, and appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1905. In 1907, Lynden-Bell became General Staff Officer Southern Command and in 1911, he became General Staff Officer Lowland Division.
At the start of the World War 1 Lynden-Bell was Assistant Quartermaster-General of the British Expeditionary Force. In 1915 he served as Chief of General Staff of the Mediterranean and Egypt Expeditionary Force, and saw service in the Gallipoli Campaign, being Mentioned in Dispatches. In 1916-1917 he was the Chief-of-Staff of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Sir Archibald Murray, but was removed from the post and returned home in mid-1917 soon after the arrival of Edmund Allenby in Cairo to replace Murray.
Lynden-Bell was appointed a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1917. In 1918 he was Director of Staff Duties at the War Office.
He retired from the regular army in 1924, and in 1928 became Colonel of the Buffs, serving in the position until 1 January 1937.

Later years

In retirement, he served as a Deputy Lieutenant and as a Justice of the Peace and was a "very keen supporter" of Kent County Cricket Club, always attending Canterbury Cricket Week in the Buff's tent at the St Lawrence Ground.

Death

Lynden-Bell died at Platt near Sevenoaks in Kent in 1943, aged 76.

Personal life

He married the Hon. Bertha Marion Akers-Douglas, daughter of Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston and Adeline Mary Austen-Smith, on 2 June 1905.

Cultural references

He appears in the war memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence.