Sir Lowthian Bell, 1st Baronet - Legacy

Legacy

After his death, the Institution of Mining Engineers resolved that

It is impossible to estimate the value of the services that Sir Lowthian Bell rendered to the Institution of Mining Engineers in promoting its objects, and in devoting his time and energies to the advancement of the Institution. —Council of the Institution of Mining Engineers

Gertrude Bell's biographer, Georgina Howell, writes of Lowthian Bell that through his writings such as The Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting he was seen as the "high priest of British Metallurgy". She observes that he was noted also for his wealth and for the innovations he made, such as the use of steel-making slag as phosphate fertilizer, and that he was arguably Britain's "foremost industrialist". Among his friends were famous Victorians such as Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, William Morris and John Ruskin. However, Howell writes, "Lowthian was admired rather than loved, and appears to have been dictatorial and harsh towards his family." She observes that "There is to this day no biography of the man who was as famous in his day as Isambard Kingdom Brunel."