Canadian Badge

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born on 21st May 1885 in Hexham Joseph was one of the sons of cartman Jonathan Bell and his wife Jane (nee Dodd). At the time of the 1891 census the family consisting of parents and siblings Robert, Johanna, Amelia (Millie), John, Joseph, Mary and Jonathan were living in Market Street, Hexham and the younger children were attending Bagraw County School. Ten years later the family, with the addition of Elizabeth and Thomas had moved to live in Back Street, and the older boys were working as carters with their father.

In September 1906 Joseph arrived in Canada, making for Calgary intending to be a farm labourer. A year later he married Isabella Adamson and their son Lawrence was born in 1908. The marriage didn’t last and Isabella remarried taking their son to live with her new family. Joseph found work as a teamster and moved to live with his sister Amelia and her husband George Paterson who had also emigrated to Canada, in Grand Trunk, Calgary.

On 1st February 1915 Joseph enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Calgary becoming Private 434695 with 50th (Alberta) Battalion, and assigned his pay to his older sister Johanna in Hexham, and named his sister Amelia as his next of kin. After having been treated at base for a sprained ankle and granted harvest leave Joseph sailed with the 50th aboard SS Orduna at the end of October arriving in Plymouth on 4th November and a posting to camp at Bramshott, Hampshire. In March 1916 he was posted to 10th Battalion, part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division and joined them in divisional reserve at Sulford Camp, France.

Just three months later Private Bell was reported as missing in action during fighting at Armagh Wood, near Zillebeke, this report being confirmed three weeks later as killed in action on 3rd June 1916. His identifiable remains were never located, and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate.

Joseph Bell is remembered in Hexham on H51.03, H51.51 and H51.53

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, and in Calgary Memorial Park.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Bell