GUERNSEY'S "KING"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18760, 17 July 1935, Page 13

GUERNSEY'S "KING"

'ss&s&■ O$ M& 4 W..BELL

ISLAM'S BES^LOYEiTMAN

ST. i'ETCit "Ali-. : '.'A:' W.: P.bll ..I Cuvi-ri&yj- #ss $& .u^bHiciai- ''kijig • oi' itf ■ died to-df-v. : A- liarlev.'"-Street - .a-cecialiat .had flpv n Irohi London in a vftlii attempt to save bis life. '. H'lri death is attributed in the island Ao his .ordeal duritig the trial of Mrs. 'Gertrude de la 'Mare, Wboni he seuveftced to death-for, .mtirder and Who h aa since been reprieved.,: by the Home [Secretary. For a fortnight he sat for si* hours a day in the crowded court listening to .the evidence in the lpHg-drawn:PUt trial, tt Was ,the-first .murder trial that the island had known'for 50 yearSi Mr. BeU postponed ,ah urgent operation so that the' trial should riot be delayed, linniediateiy th> -trial .ended he went into a nursing honte. Tip F.OG ' It was at the urgent request of the islanders that Dr. T. Izbd Bennett, a, Haiiey Street specialist, called -to; perform the operation., ...... , . , For six hours Ihey telephoned air; charter companies alt oyer England in au eudeavbr to" find a pilot who would; risk flying over the Channel through' the fog and landing on aii island where there was no guiding lights on the new airdrome.

Eventually, after being held up six hours.-by. bad .weather, Dr.. Bennett landed.'- • •■ :

"Although .the operation Waa. success* fnl, Mr. Bell, because of the exhaustion brought about by the trial, lacked resilience," Mr. Walter Martin, his lifelong friend, told me .tonight, '■'*Mii Bell was the ; hpst'.loved man in the island." v