ارتبطت عائلته لفترة طويلة بتعليم الخطابة وفن الإلقاء: جده "ألكسندر بيل" في لندن، وعمه في دبلن، ووالده في إدنبرة، عملوا جميعا في هذا المجال.
His family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists.