Inspector-General of Hospitals Dandeson Coates Bell was born in March 1793 and elected a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1815. Appointed a Surgeon in the Indian Medical Service in July 1823, he was advanced to Superintending Surgeon in January 1840, in which rank he participated in the Scinde Campaign of 1843, when he was present at the Battles of Dabka and Hyderabad. Bell was advanced to Inspector-General of Hospitals in May of the same year and retired in January 1844. He died in Edinburgh in August 1854, his son, George Coates, continuing the family's association with the Service (see Lot 567).