Studio portrait of 4734 Private Charles Frederick Bell, 1st (later 53rd) Battalion of Miller's ...

Accession Number P05301.175
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Photomechanical print
Maker Unknown
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made c 1916
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Studio portrait of 4734 Private Charles Frederick Bell, 1st (later 53rd) Battalion of Miller's Point, NSW. Son of Theophilus James and Annie “Rose” Bell ; husband of Lillian Margaret Bell. A labourer prior to enlistment, he embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT Star of England (A15) on 8 March 1916. He was killed in action on 19 July 1916 at Fromelles, France, aged 36. Along with 400 other unidentified casualties of the battle, he is buried at VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, France. By descent of his maternal grandfather William Banham Fanque (alias Pablo Fanque/Young Pablo), a circus performer in both the United Kingdom and Australia, Charles Frederick Bell is believed to be either the great-grandson or great-nephew of William Darby better known as Pablo Fanque (Senior), an English equestrian performer and circus proprietor in the mid-19th century and the first recorded non-white British circus owner in Britain.