Captain Frederick Secker Bell CB (17 August 1897 – 23 November 1973) of the Royal Navy was the commander of HMS Exeter during the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939. He was educated at Matfield Grange, a prep school in Kent, and then at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. He served afloat in the battleship HMS Canada at the Battle of Jutland, as First Lieutenant of the destroyer HMS Scythe in the Reserve Fleet at Devonport, 1923–25, and as executive officer of HMS Repulse from 1935 to 1938 and was promoted captain on 31 December 1938.