Walter Lambert Bell was born in Sheffield. He studied part-time at the Sheffield School of Art, and exhibited with the Sheffield Society of Artists during the 1920s and 1930s. He could not make a living from his art and was recorded as a fried fish dealer from 1925 to 1932. He was married to Sarah Freedman (known as Sadie) in 1930 and in 1934 he became a ladies hairdresser. Around 1937 the couple moved to Stoney Middleton near Bakewell in Derbyshire, where he continued to work as a hairdresser, painting in his spare time.

On his retirement Bell and his wife retired to Cornwall, though it is not known where they settled. He produced paintings of Mevagissey, Polperro and Cadgwith. Their marriage broke down and Sadie returned to Sheffield. He stayed in the west country and moved to Tavistock, where he died in 1983.