A very great number of people in China, and especially in Hankow and Shanghai, will regret to hear that a message was received in the Settlement last Friday telling of the death of Mr. Cyril Herinessey Bell, Ach, head of the Hankow branch lof the firm of Thomson & Ca. chartered accountants, Mr. Ball had been ailing for the past year or more and last October his, doctors, suspecting a cancerous growth, advised his immediate return to England, whither he went, vid Siberia, accompanied by Mrs. Bell. "His three young children followed by the Suez route. He was to undergo an operation, The late Mr. Bell, who was a little over 40 years of age, came to Shanghai about 15 years to join the firm of Thomson & Ca., and after Jo short stay here he went to Hankow to open branch of the firm in that port, and he remained in charge of the branch continuously up to the time of his death. Business people had the greatest respect for him and the highest opinion of his Work and qualifications, but, as one of his oldest acquaintances put it last Friday, "it was as a sportsman and a rattling good fellow that many people best knew him.
Coming from thorough Irish stock, Mr. Bell inherited the most pronounced sporting instincts of the race. In his time he owned and trained many race ponies in Hankow and, though proverbially as blind as a bat and having none too robust 'a constitution, he insisted on riding his own ponies both on the flat and in steeplechases and he was a regular ster in the country, riding the straightest and hardest course of any. His physical handicaps prevented him becoming a great jocko but he was not without his success and many times was first past th post. He counted Rugby football as in no way inferior to riding and played on every possible occasion for sheer love of the game. Again a close friend can be quoted. Quite recently he warned Mr. Bell that, in justice to himself in his then state of health, he should take his sports little less vigorously. The answer came direct, "My boy, it is no good. Whenever I see a football I just have to go for it, and T cannot help Mr. Boll will be widely mourned by both foreigners and Chinese in this country and the greatest pathy is extended to his wife and children,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.