LATE SIR FRANCIS BELL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 80, 16 March 1936, Page 7

LATE SIR FRANCIS BELL

Funeral at Wellington <B» Tale<r*pb-Pr«i( Auortttloa.> WELLINGTON, March 18. The funeral of Sir Francis Bell took place to-day. St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral was crowded with one of the largest and most representative congregations ever seen in Wellington. Practically every section of the community and all shades of political thought were represented. Those present included Major Purvis, representing the Governor-General, the Hon. M. J. Savage, Prime Minister, the Hon. H. G. K. Mason, Attorney-Gener-al, and the Hons. W. E. Parry, F. Langstone and M. Fagan, Ministers of the Crown, Judges Heed, Ostler, Blair and Kennedy, and prominent members of both Houses of the Legislature, including the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. The legal profession was well represented, also public bodies, Government departments, civic authorities, commercial and other interests. The chief mourners were a son, Mr Cheviot Bell, and Mrs Bell and her daughters and sons-in-law, Judge Johnston and Mrs Johnston, Mrs G. H. F. Rolleston, Miss Bell, Mr and Mrs J. G. Denniston, Mrs Warwick Blundell (grand-daughter) and Mr Blundell, Mr Nigel Johnston (grandson), Mr E. D. Bell (brother), Mr A. K. S. Mackenzie (nephew) and Mrs Mackenzie. The pall bearers were relations, Mr Charles Gill, Sir Francis’s personal servant, and members of the staff of Sir Francis’s firm for over 40 years. The service was conducted by Bishop Sprott and Canon James preached a panegyric and also officiated at the Karori crematorium.

In his panegyric Canon James referred to the passing of a link with the colonisation days in New Zealand, also to Sir Francis Bell’s long term of public service, both in civic and political life. He paid a tribute to Sir Francis Bell as leader of the legal profession for half a century in New Zealand. He was a lover of men and loved all men. He was remembered particularly in St. Paul’s, where the Toe H lamp was dedicated to his son who fell in the war. Members of Toe H participated in the Cathedral service.