BELL, Cecil John (1868 – 1932)

MR. CECIL JOHN BELL, the present Resident Magistrate of Zastron, Orange River Colony, was born in Smithfield in the year 1868, and is the second son of the late Rev. Canon Bell, of St. Andrew's Cathedral, Bloemfontein, who was responsible for the earlier education of the subject of our sketch. The latter stages of his scholastic career were passed at the Grey College, Bloemfontein, from which institution he passed the Civil Service Examination of the O.V.S. with honours in the year 1887, and but two years later matriculated with honours at the Cape ·university. In the year 1889 he entered the Civil Service and passed through almost all its branches, including that of the offices of the Master of the High Court, Auditor-General, Government Secretary, and Registrar of Deeds.

In 1894 he proceeded to Heilbron in the Orange River Colony as clerk to the Resident Magistrate there, and some sixteen months later was transferred to Winburg as Assistant Resident Magistrate, also acting as Resident Magistrate for a considerable period. It was he who, during the period of the Anglo-Boer War, surrendered to the British forces under Sir Ian Hamilton the town of Winburg in his official capacity as Assistant Resident Magistrate under the late Government.

In April 1902 he left Winburg for Bloemfontein, where he held the post of Assistant Resident Magistrate till July 1904, when he was transferred to Brandfort as Detached Assistant Resident Magistrate, remaining there till September 1906, when he received his present appointment as Detached Assistant Resident Magistrate at Zastron, Orange River Colony. He is Chairman of the Local School Board and the Fencing Committee, and a member of the Athletic Association and Library Committee.

But a few years past Mr. Bell was well known in sporting circles, and during the time he was resident in Bloemfontein was a prominent member of the Orange River Colony Rugby team in the Colony tournaments, and also represented the capital in the cricketing world.

His brother, Mr. T. W. Bell, was also a shining light on the Rugby ground, and was well known as the best back in the Orange River Colony, and a member of the team of the Orange River Colony who played against an English eleven before the war.

Mr. Bell married, in the year 1901, Daisy, the second daughter of the late W. P. Thomson , Esq., of Winburg, and has issue two children.

Note: Mr. Bell divorced Daisy Mary in about 1927 and moved to New Zealand where Cecil died at Wellington, NZ in 1932.

Source: Men of the Times, published by The Transvaal Publishing Company, Johannesburg, Cape Town & London, printed by Eyre and Spottiswood, His Majesty’s Printers, 1906