Historical information

Richard Bell was born in Dumfermline, Scotland in 1850, arriving in Victoria with his family as a child. He worked at the grocery store of W.L. Wilson, Skipton Street, Sebastopol for six years before opening his own grocery business on the corner of Drummond and South Streets, Ballarat. The business was successful and he retired 15 years later. He was elected to the Ballarat City Council in 1891, and in 1892 he started an auctioneering and sharebroking business in partnership with Mr Lambert.
Organisations such as the Ballarat Woollen Company and the Ballarat Tramway Board benefited from Richard Bell's association with them, and he was the Director of many mining companies.
He was a member of the Old Colonists' Association of Ballarat, the Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute and the Commercial Club. Richard Bell was interest in erecting statues in Sturt Street to the memory of the poets Burns and Moore, and served on the relevant committee to that end. He was a long term truster of the Miners' Association, and took a very active part in the South Street Debating Society.

In April 1874 Richard Bell married Jessie Scott, and the couple had two sons and seven daughters.

Physical description

Portrait of Alexander Bell, member of the Old Colonists Association of Ballarat.