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Julian Heward Bell (4 February 1908 – 18 July 1937) was an English poet, and the son of Clive and
Vanessa Bell Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen). Early life and education Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...
(who was the elder sister of
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
). The writer Quentin Bell was his younger brother and the writer and painter
Angelica Garnett Angelica Vanessa Garnett (née Bell; 25 December 1918 – 4 May 2012), was a British writer, painter and artist. She was the author of the memoir ''Deceived with Kindness'' (1984), an account of her experience growing up at the heart of t ...
was his half-sister. His relationship with his mother is explored in Susan Sellers' novel ''Vanessa and Virginia''.


Background

Julian Heward Bell was born in St Pancras, London, and was brought up at
Charleston, Sussex Charleston, in East Sussex, is a property associated with the Bloomsbury group, that is open to the public. It was the country home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and is an example of their decorative style within a domestic context, repres ...
. He was educated at
Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having been founded as a Quaker School in 1890. The school's ...
and
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
, where he joined the
Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...
. He was a friend of some of the
Cambridge Five The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted ...
, including Anthony Blunt, to whom he lost his virginity. (In the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
dramatisation ''
Cambridge Spies ''Cambridge Spies'' is a four-part British drama miniseries written by Peter Moffat and directed by Tim Fywell, that was first broadcast on BBC Two in May 2003 and is based on the true story of four brilliant young men at the University of C ...
'' he appears as Blunt's lover and
Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...
's unrequited love interest). After graduating he worked towards a college fellowship, without success. In 1935 he went to China, to a position teaching English at
Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...
. He wrote letters describing his relationship with a married lover, K. - Ling Shuhua, the wife of Professor Chen Yuan (better known by his penname, Chen Xiying). The identity of 'K' became a sensitive issue when the Chinese-British novelist
Hong Ying Hong Ying (; born September 21, 1962) is a Chinese author. Biography Hong was born in Chongqing on September 21, 1962, towards the end of the Great Leap Forward. She began to write at eighteen, leaving home shortly afterwards to spend the ne ...
published a fictionalised account, '' K: The Art of Love'' in 1999. After a 2002 ruling by a Chinese court, that the book was 'defamation of the dead', the author rewrote the book, which was published in 2003 under the title ''The English Lover''. Bell was initially a pacifist and edited an anthology of memoirs of conscientious objectors from the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, ''We Did Not Fight''. In 1937, Bell became increasingly supportive of the socialist and anti-fascist movements and decided to enlist in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
.Linda Palfreeman, ''Salud!: British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Service During the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939'' Sussex Academic Press, 2012 (pp. 270–1) His parents and his aunt Virginia tried to dissuade him; eventually they persuaded Julian to get a job as an
ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
driver on the Republican side, rather than a soldier. His motive for going to Spain was a general sympathy for the cause of the Spanish Republic, plus "the usefulness of war experience in the future and the prestige one would gain in literature and – even more – Left politics". After just a month in Spain he found himself in the thick of the action, driving an ambulance for the British Medical Unit attached to the International Brigades at the battle of Brunete. He was hit by bomb fragments on a stretch of road just outside Villanueva de la Cañada, sustaining a massive lung wound, and later died in a military hospital at
El Escorial El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial ( es, Monasterio y Sitio de El Escorial en Madrid), or Monasterio del Escorial (), is a historical residence of the King of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, u ...
. He was 29.


Works

* ''Winter Movement'' (1930) poems * ''We Did Not Fight: 1914–18 Experiences of War Resisters'' (1935) editor * ''Work for the Winter'' (1936) poems * ''Essays, Poems and Letters'' (1938) edited by Quentin Bell


References


Further reading

* ''Lily Briscoe's Chinese Eyes: Bloomsbury, Modernism, and China'' (2003), Patricia Laurence * ''Vanessa and Virginia'', Susan Sellers * ''Julian Bell: From Bloomsbury to the Spanish Civil War'' (2012), Peter Stansky and William Abrahams * ''Mémoires de Duncan Grant, un Highlander à Bloomsbury'' by Christian Soleil (2011), Monpetitéditeur, Paris. * ''Mémoires de Duncan Grant, A Bohemian Rhapsody'' by Christian Soleil (2012), Monpetitéditeur, Paris. * ''Le Neveu de Virginia Woolf, entretien avec Julian Bell'' by Christian Soleil (2012), Publibook, Paris. * ''Life in Squares(2015) portrayed by
Finn Jones Finn Jones (born Terence Jones; 24 March 1988) is an English actor known for his roles as Loras Tyrell in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2016) and Danny Rand / Iron Fist in the Netflix television shows '' Iron Fist'' (2017–2018) ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Julian 1908 births 1937 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Bloomsbury Group British people of the Spanish Civil War Military personnel killed in the Spanish Civil War People educated at Leighton Park School Stephen-Bell family Academic staff of Wuhan University English socialists English anti-fascists 20th-century English poets 20th-century British economists