Sir Joshua Thomas Bell Print Page

An obelisk erected by the residents of the Dalby district commemorates Sir Joshua Thomas Bell who represented Dalby in the State Parliament uninterruptedly for 18 years. 

In 1893 Bell was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the electoral district of Dalby and held this seat for the rest of his life. Bell was elected Chairman of Committees in 1902 and in September 1903 joined the Arthur Morgan ministry as Minister for Lands.

William Kidston succeeded Morgan in January 1906 but Bell held his old position in the new cabinet until November 1907, and was also Minister for Railways from February to July of that year. Bell was Minister for Lands in the second Kidston Ministry from February to October 1908, and then Home Secretary until 29 June 1909, when he was elected Speaker.

His Excellency Sir William MacGregor, in the presence of a large assembly of residents of Dalby and of the surrounding district, as well as of a number of visitors from other parts of southern Queensland, including a special train load from Toowoomsba unveiled a monument to the late Hon. J. T. Bell, at Dalby, on Sunday afternoon. 

His Excellency referred to the conspicuous and honourable positions held both by the late Sir Joshua Peter Bell, and his distinguished son, the late Hon. J. T. Bell, in the public life of Queensland. Having the gentleman, in whose memory the obelisk had been erected, he (Sir William) expressed the hope that the son, who was one of thre witnesses of that ceremony, under the able guidance of his mother, would follow in the footsteps of his disltinguishid father and grandfather. 
Queensland Times (Ipswich) (Qld),  3 March 1914.

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