30/12/2015 |
Private Alexander Bell embarked for a second time as a Gunner with 32nd Reinforcements New Zealand Field Artillery, embarking with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force from Wellington on 21 November 1917 aboard the Maunganui for Liverpool, England. |
30/12/2015 |
Alexander Bell re-enlisted at Taupiri on 14th May 1917. Like many of his peers, he gave his birth date as 22 July 1894 and therefore bumping his age up to 22, rather than the 19 that he actually was. |
30/12/2015 |
Private Alexander Law Bell embarked with the Auckland Infantry Battalion, along with his older brother John, with the 4th Reinforcements from Wellington on 17 April 1915 for Suez, Egypt. |
30/12/2015 |
Alexander worked as a Drover at Taupiri in the Waikato. |
30/12/2015 |
Alexander Law Bell was the brother of John Edward Bell. |
30/12/2015 |
On 3 September 1915 Alexander was admitted to hospital in the Dardanelles suffering from a crushed foot. |
30/12/2015 |
On 25 September 1915 he was admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Cairo suffering from Diphtheria. |
30/12/2015 |
Private Bell was also acutely ill with Typhoid. Alexander appears to have been invalided out of the army and was discharged on 27 July 1916. |
30/12/2015 |
Alexander Law Bell was the son of Edward and Mary Bell (nee Watt) who married in Turakina on 19 May 1881. Alexander was born in Fielding, New Zealand on 22 July 1897. |
30/12/2015 |
His older brother John Bell was killed in Belgium on 17 June 1917. |
30/12/2015 |
His mother, Mary Bell, was born in New Zealand. His father was born in England. |
30/12/2015 |
Private Bell was wounded once again in France, most likely during the Battle of Amiens. |
30/12/2015 |
Private Alexander Law Bell died from his wounds in the field at the Advanced Dressing Station of No. 3 N.Z. Field Ambulance on 9th August 1918. He was 21 years old. |
30/12/2015 |
The CWGC records Private Bell as the son of Edward and Mary Bell. |
30/12/2015 |
It seems unlikely that either Alexander or his brother ever lived in the Cookstown District. |
30/12/2015 |
On 16 February 1917 the Medical Board examined him and found him 'now in good health and in a suitable condition for acceptance for re-enlistment'. |