William R. Bell

William Robert Bell (7 August 1876 – 4 October 1927) was an Australian-born official in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, who served as the District Officer of Malaita from 1915 until 1927. He was killed while collecting a head tax from the Kwaio of central Malaita. His death set off the Malaita massacre, in which several other colonial officials were killed in a Kwaio attack, which led to a punitive expedition in which many Kwaio were killed or incarcerated in retaliation.

Bell was born in Maffra district of Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, the third son of a migrant from Whaddon (Cambridgeshire) in a family with fifteen children. He was raised by his aunt, but maintained close ties to his father's family nearby. He left school at age fourteen to assist with the family farm work at Tanjil South. He was an excellent athlete, and talented at cricket.

Along with his older brother George (later The Hon Sir George), he enlisted to fight in the Second Boer War in 1899. He served in the 2nd Victorian Mounted Rifles, and participated in the fighting at the Black Reef mine in the Witwatersrand. Returning to the farm after the war, his right hand was accidentally impaled with a pitchfork, necessitating a surgical removed of part of the palm and some fingers. Later he claimed the wound to have been the result of his war experience. The injury prevented him from participating in the First World War and pursuing a military career, as several of his brothers did.

In 1901 or 1902, Bell left Australia to go to Fiji. His first job was on Mango. Later he worked for Brown and Joske, and served as an accountant and later a recruiting agent. Afterwards, he found work as a Government Agent aboard the schooner Clansman, which was involved in the labour trade bringing Solomon Islanders to Fiji. When this recruiting ceased in 1911, he found work in the Solomon Administration's Department of Labour. In his work, he supported the rights and interests of the native people against the exploitative plantation industry, and sought consistent enforcement rules and regulations.

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