Sergeant Alexander John Bell, F.M.S.V.F., is reported by one of his fellow-prisoners to have been shot by the Japanese after an attempt to escape from one of the railroad camps. He would then have been about 30 years of age.
He was a student at Ballarat School of Mines and Industries, Victoria, Australia, from 1929 to 1932, and was granted the Diploma and admitted an Associate of the School in 1934.
For the first 3 months of 1933 he worked as cyanide shiftman at the Golden Ridges cyanide plant of New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd., subsequently holding the position of chief assayer until December, 1935. After two months at Edie Creek Gold Mining Co., N.L., Mr. Bell transferred first to the Edie Creek assay office of New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd., and later to their mill and cyanide plant. At the end of 1936 he took up the appointment of metallurgist in charge of Edie mine pilot mill and plant under Enterprise of New Guinea Gold and Petroleum Development, N.L., in whose service he remained until 1939, when he left New Guinea and joined the staff of Raub Australian Gold Mining Co., Ltd., Pahang, Malaya.
It is known that he was a sergeant in the F.M.S.V.F. and apart from a report of his imprisonment at Moulmein camp, Burma, nothing had been heard of him until the news of his death. It is understood that he left the prisoner-of-war camp to contact some natives who had promised to guide a party to the border, but on finding that they intended to sell the party to the Japanese he endeavoured to return to camp to warn his friends but was captured by a Japanese sentry. He is reported to have been shot when he refused to reveal his associates.
He was elected to Associateship of the Institution in 1939.
Vol. 56, Trans I.M.M. 1946-7, pp. 607-8
