BELL, Alfred Chessar
(Service number 63544)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank | Private |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 11 June 1893 | Place of Birth | Dundee, Scotland |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | 50 Adelaide Road, Wellington; 23 Craigie Avenue, Timaru | ||
| Occupation | Carpenter | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | |||
| Next of Kin | Mrs Robert BELL (mother), 1Grey Road, Timaru | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Rifle Brigade | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 32nd Reinforcements, F Company | ||
| Date | 21 November 1917 | ||
| Transport | Maunganui | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Liverpool, Merseyside, England | |
| Other Units Served With | Trained with the 29th Platoon at Wairapara for the 2nd Otago NZEF. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | British War Medal; Victory Medal | ||
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 |
Death
| Date | 31 July 1989 | Age | 96 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Lower Hutt | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | |||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Alfred Chessar Bell was born on 11 June 1893 at Dundee, Scotland, the only son of Robert and Mary (née Chessar) Bell. Alfred had five sisters. The family came to New Zealand about 1912, Alfred stating that he had been in the country for five years when he enlisted on 18 July 1917. His two youngest sisters entered Timaru Main School early in 1913, coming from Dundee, Scotland. Alfred was a carpenter in Wellington when he was called up and enlisted.
In May 1918 his mother received the word that he had been reported missing between 12 and 19 April, and was then believed to have been made a prisoner of war on 16th April. It was officially reported in June that A. C. Bell, Entrenching Battalion, was a prisoner of war in Germany. He was released from captivity at the beginning of December 1918. Having embarked for New Zealand on 11 March 1919 per the “Rarungi”, he was met by the Timaru Reception Committee and accorded a hearty welcome home at the Railway Station at the end of April.
Alfred married Annie Ramsay Fenton in 1920 at Chalmers Church, Timaru. He lived to a grand age, dying on 31 July 1989 at Lower Hutt, aged 96 years. His parents and all his sisters, but the youngest, were long-lived.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [15 August 2020]; Karori Crematorium record (Wellington City Council) [20 August 2020]; Timaru Herald, 30 May 1918, 21 June 1918, 15 April 1919, 2 May 1919, Nelson Evening Mail, 31 May 1918, Star, 20 June 1918 (Papers Past) [11 November 2013; 16 August 2020]
External Links
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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