Profile

BELL, Robert Alfred
(Service number 74374)

Aliases Birth registered as BELL Alfred
First Rank Trooper Last Rank Trooper

Birth

Date 21/01/1884 Place of Birth Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date 26 November 1917 Age 33 years
Address at Enlistment Makikihi
Occupation Farmer
Previous Military Experience Studholme Mounted Rifles - 2 years; Disbanded
Marital Status Single when enlisted; married before embarkation
Next of Kin Mrs R. A. BELL (wife), Norton Reserve. Waimate
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 41st Reinforcements, Mounted Rifles Brigade
Date 11 October 1918
Transport Moeraki; transhipped to Malta at Sydney
Embarked From Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Canterbury Regiment NZMA

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Labourer

Death

Date 21 January 1959 Age 75 years
Place of Death Waimate
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Waimate Cemetery
Memorial Reference Beam 9, Plot 1005
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Robert Alfred Bell, whose birth was registered as Alfred Bell, was born on 21 January 1884 at Waimate, the second son of Robert and Robina (formerly Johnston, née McKay) Bell. He did have an older half-brother, Alexander Johnston. His parents farmed “Minniemoore” at Hook. His father died in 1902 and his mother, who was “well and widely known for her hospitality”, died unecpectedly in 1913. When Alfred enlisted in 1917, he was single and farming on his own account at Makikihi. He had served with the Studholme Mounted Rifles for two years before the company was disbanded. On 2 July 1918 at Waimate he married Evelyn Ellen Patterson, who was named as his next-of-kin. His youngest brother, Stanley Ferguson Bell, was killed in action in France in 1917, and another brother, Irwin McKay Bell, also served in World War One.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [09 November 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [09 November 2020]; Waimate Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Waimate District Council) [09 November 2020]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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