Hardly a week would go by on this forum without some reference to W D M Bell and he certainly sparks some debate, or his exploits in Africa do.

Does anyone have any definitive reference to his actual date of death. Oft published is 1951 but this date could have come from his book "Bell of Africa" compiled by his American friend, Townsend Whelen, who may have got this wrong.

Wikipedia list the day he died as 30 June 1954 referring to a personal letter from his widow to another writer. I have seen another reference as 1953.

When did he finally go to the happy hunting grounds where we all like to think we could meet someday?

I have John Jobson's copy of Bell of Africa in which he placed many notes throughout the book. On page 231 of the book " In *1951 he had another heart attack that proved fatal." The 1951 is crossed out and handwritten in the following below:
* one source says 1954
It Definitely was 1954

Also on the page prior to the contents page Jobson has inserted a photo of Bell and written the dates 1880 - 1954 in red pen below.

There is also the Christies 2003 auction of Bell drawings and correspondence that lists under the AITKEN-BELL CORRESPONDENCE the following item:--9)a: Walter Bell to Russell Aitken, 7 January 1954 (3pp., on hunting, trophies; mentions Selous)

Thanks for reply C32. As I suspected, it appears TW got it wrong when editing Bell's manuscript into the book "Bell of Africa" and has inadvertently perpetuated the year of 1951 as the year of his death.
A bit of a shame as 1951 is my birth year and I share the same surname. One of my great grandfathers was from Scotland, not that I'm aware of any ancestral relationship and from my earliest years I have always had an interest and a hankering to go to Africa and talk and read of it often enough.
My step children, children, and now grandchildren, and their friends, have always called me Bell, nobody uses my first name, and this gets converted to Bell of Africa on occasions when a possible hunting trip to the Dark Continent comes into a conversation.
Strangely our present house cat came to us from the SPCA named Walter!!!!!