OBITUARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18151, 24 January 1921, Page 3

OBITUARY.

' WILLIAM F. BELL. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 2. The death occurred at the London Hospital, on November 25, of ‘Mr William F. Bell, a promising young art student o. Dunedin. Mr Bell, who was the son of Mrs Bell, of 27 Broughton street, South Dunedin, recently obtained a grant from , the National War Funds Council and other patriotic bodies and oame to London | to pursue his art studies. In order to save ! money he worked his passage Home on board the vessel Port Chalmers, first as a steward, and subsequently #as an engi- ) neer’s assistant. t On his- arrival here, however, he was , obviously in bad health and much depressed. He went to stay with a friend, Mr 'Fite, of Loystonstone, and in a few [ days he was taken seriously ill Ho was removed to the London Hospital, where he was found to be suffering from rheu- , matic fever, brought on, it is thought, by

the unusual hardships experienced on the passage to this country. He was fortunate in having a Duqedin friend, Mr E. H. Thompson, who is also an art student, here. Everything possible was done for the patient while he was in. the hospital, and he had the attention of Lord Dawson, the King’s physician, but the heart was so seriously affected that there seems to have been little hope for his recovery, and he succumbed, after being in hospital for 11 weeks/ The deceased, who will be best Known by students of the Dunedin Art School, was a member of the 3rd Battalion ,of the N.Z.R.8., and came to Egypt in March of 1916, leaving for France m April of the same year. He was extremely popular amongst his companions, and his sketches, which appeared in the publications Shellshocks, Fourthoughts, and New Zealand at the Front, will be well remembered ( by members of the Expeditionary Force. He took part in the attacks at Flers, at Messines, and at Passchendaele, and served in France until the armistice, when he came over to England to obtain a commission. He returned to New Zealand by the Adolph Woerman, in the middle > 1919, and spent about eight months in Dunedin before setting out again for England. The funeral took place at Little Ilford yesterday, when the High Commissioner was represented bv a member of the New Zealand -Government office staff. Mr Thompson and several London friends were also present.