Arthur Bell
BELL, Arthur (Wilbraham) Dillon, MICE (1856-1943)
Arthur Wilbraham Dillon Bell (4 April 1856 – 29 May 1943) was an engineer active in New Zealand and Western Australia. Bell was a son of Francis Dillon Bell; his father was at the time of his birth a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. His elder brother, Francis Bell, would later be Prime Minister of New Zealand. Bell received his secondary schooling in New Zealand and after a time in journalism and as a public servant, he went to England to train as an engineer.
After a short period serving indentures with Sir John Hawkshaw, during which time he worked on the East London Railway, the docks at Fleetwood, and the extension of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in England, Bell moved to New Zealand in 1879 and joined its Public Works Department as an Assistant Engineer in 1880. After being Resident Engineer on two lines of railways, and executing some hydrographic surveys, he became Resident Engineer for Defence in 1885 and Engineer for Defence in 1888.
Moving to Western Australia as an Assistant to C.Y. O'Connor in 1891, he sought estimates of the quantities of water which would be required by the Goldfields in 1895. He became Superintendent of Buildings with J.H. Grainger as his Chief Architect in 1897, and Engineer for Harbours and Rivers in 1903. He proposed a timber dock on Arthur's Head and organised trial borings at Rous Head in the same year.
He retired young, in 1907, and returned to New Zealand. In 1917 the Bells moved back to Australia, to Melbourne, to be with their daughter's family.
See this Wikipedia article for an extensive biography of Arthur Bell.
References:
Public Works Department ... work ... June 1894, V&P WA 1894 22. BB 1905. GG 1907, p829;
Shields, W.H. 'Early history of the Fremantle Graving Dock' PWAIE 3, 1912, pp77‐102;
TAUM pp26, etc . LPG pp277, 323 4;
HAIEA.
