Idris Bell

Sir Harold Idris Bell CB OBE (2 October 1879–22 January 1967) was a British papyrologist (specialising in Roman Egypt) and scholar of Welsh literature.

Bell was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire to an English father and a Welsh mother. He was educated at Nottingham High School and Oriel College, Oxford. In 1903, he joined the British Museum as an assistant in the Department of Manuscripts and remained there his entire working life, becoming Deputy Keeper of the Department in 1927 and Keeper in 1929. He retired in 1944.

Bell was appointed Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 1920 and Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1936, and was knighted in 1946.