Thanks for the posts so far, which are useful even if they don't reveal too much. I have a quote from the Leeds Sports Echo for 25 September 1909, which says that Bell was moving to London on that Saturday and that he had "signed for Crystal Palace." This suggests he already had a contact in London who had set up the signing. He only seems to have been in London during term time for the 09-10 and 10-11 seasons (Oct to mid Dec and again January to Easter). I've read that he had a trial with Herts county RU team while in London (although I'm not sure how he would be qualified), so it seems likely that he was also playing rugby around this time.
I am sure the earlier player is a different man as Donald Bell would have been living in Yorkshire at the time.
If anyone has any experience of trawling through the local papers covering Palace at this time I'd be interested to know which titles are the best to look at.
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