Joshua Thomas Bell

Joshua Thomas Bell
Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
In office
29 June 1909 – 10 March 1911
Preceded byJohn Leahy
Succeeded byWilliam Drayton Armstrong
ConstituencyDalby
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Dalby
In office
29 April 1893 – 10 March 1911
Preceded byJohn Jessop
Succeeded byWilliam Vowles
Personal details
Born(1863-03-13)13 March 1863
Died10 March 1911(1911-03-10) (aged 47)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeToowong Cemetery
PartyLiberals
Other political
affiliations
Kidstonites, Ministerial
SpouseCatherine Jane Ferguson (m.1903 d.1943)
RelationsSir Joshua Peter Bell (father), John Ferguson (father-in-law), John Alexander Bell (uncle)
Alma materTrinity Hall, Cambridge
OccupationBarrister

Joshua Thomas Bell (13 March 1863 – 10 March 1911) was an Australian barrister and politician.

Bell was the son of Sir Joshua Peter Bell, and his wife Margaret Miller, née Dorsey and was born in Ipswich, Queensland. Bell was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was president of the Cambridge Union.[1]

Bell was admitted to practice as a lawyer in England and was a marshal on the Northern Assizes circuit in 1888. In 1889 Bell returned to Australia where he became the private secretary of the judge Sir Samuel Griffith. In 1893 Bell became a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the electoral district of Dalby in which his family home, Jimbour Homestead, was located.[2] He married the daughter of John Ferguson in 1903 and had two children.[3]

In 1901, Bell unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of Darling Downs in Australia's first federal by-election, but he was defeated by Littleton Ernest Groom, the son of the original member.

Bell died at Rakeevan, his Graceville residence on 10 March 1911.[4] Bell was accorded a state funeral which proceeded from St John's Anglican Cathedral to the Toowong Cemetery[5] where he was buried next to his father.

References

  1. ^ "Bell, Joshua Thomas (BL881JT)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ "Jimbour House (entry 600941)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  3. ^ Serle, Percival (1949). "Bell, Joshua Thomas". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
  4. ^ "DEATH OF THE HON. J. T. BELL". The Brisbane Courier. 11 March 1911. p. 5. Retrieved 10 January 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Family Notices". The Brisbane Courier. 11 March 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 10 January 2016 – via National Library of Australia.

Bibliography

  • Joshua Thomas Bell entry on Jimbour History. Jimbour Homestead was the Bell family home for many years.