Bell retired to Cannes in 1924, but he still travelled widely. In 1925-26 he made an extensive semi-official tour of the Far East to study French and Dutch systems of colonial government. His conclusions were published as "Foreign colonial administration in the Far East" in 1928, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Empire Society. During the Second World War, Bell returned to live in the Bahamas, but was a frequent visitor to London, where he was a member of the Conservative Club in St James's.In 1951, Bell’s will was signed and witnessed in Monaco, where he also had a home. In it he:   Sir Henry Hesketh Joudou Bell, GCMG, who lived at 92 Redcliffe Gardens, Kensington, died at a nursing home on 1st August 1952. Bell’s sister, Eléonore Marthe Joudou-Bell, married John Francis Scully. They had one child, registered as Marjory Léonore Scully at birth (1893), but Marjorie Leonore in the National Probate Calendar. She married twice: first, to Thomas Arthur Apperson in 1920 and, second, to Alfred Robert Llewellin-Taylour, MA, FRSA, FRGS, a barrister in 1954. When Hesketh Bell died in 1952, “Marjorie Leonora Apperson single woman” was named in his will. When she in turn died in 1968, her executors deposited Hesketh Bell’s collection of photographs with the Royal Commonwealth Society. His works included memoirs, fiction, and colonial history and administration