Harry Charles Purvis Bell

Harry Charles Purvis Bell (1851 – 1937), more often known as HCP Bell, was a British civil servant, a commissioner in the Ceylon Civil Service. Appointed an official archaeologist^[1], he carried out many excavations in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), for the Archaeological Survey, during an appointment running from 1890 to 1912^[2]

After retirement, he also investigated the archaeology and epigraphy of the Maldives, (see Evolution of the Judiciary in the Maldives), where he had been earlier in life^[3] and studied the linguistics of Divehi. Bell had developed a good friendship with the king of Maldives, who put his own royal schooner Fath-ul-Majid at his disposition to carry archaeological research in certain atolls south of Male'.

Works

• The Máldive Islands: An account of the Physical Features, History, Inhabitants, Productions and Trade. Colombo 1883
• The Máldive Islands. Monograph on the History, Archæology, and Epigraphy with W. L. De Silva, Colombo 1940.
• Excerpta Maldiviana, Colombo 1940.

References

• Bethia N. Bell and Heather M. Bell (1993), H. C. P. Bell: Archaeologist of Ceylon and the Maldives

Notes

1. ^ Department of Archaeology - History
2. ^ Robin W. Winks, Alaine M. Low, The Oxford History of the British Empire (1999), p. 244.
3. ^ [1], [2]