Bob Bell (politician)
Robert Linfield Bell (23 August 1929 – 16 November 2011) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party. He had a farming background and represented the Gisborne electorate in Parliament from 1975 until his defeat in 1984.
Early life
[edit]Bell was born in Blenheim in 1929. His father was Alex Linfield Bell.[1] He received his education at Christchurch Boys' High School, Horowhenua College, and Feilding Agricultural High School. He graduated from Lincoln College in 1951 with a diploma in valuation and farm management.[1][2] In 1954, he married Anne Wilkinson, the daughter of John Arthur Wilkinson, and they were to have two daughters and one son.[1]
Professional life and community involvement
[edit]He was a farm appraiser for six years, followed by seven years as the Gisborne–East Coast representative of London Wood Brokers (NZ) Ltd. For ten years after that, he was a farm management consultant and valuer. Bell was a director of Gisborne Holdings Ltd.[1]
Bell was a counsellor for the Gisborne Budgetary Advisory Service, a committee member of the Poverty Bay A & P Association, and a director of the YMCA in Gisborne.[1] He served in the Territorials for six years, with the rank of lieutenant, and was appointed as a justice of the peace in 1987.[3]
Political career
[edit]| Years | Term | Electorate | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975–1978 | 38th | Gisborne | National | ||
| 1978–1981 | 39th | Gisborne | National | ||
| 1981–1984 | 40th | Gisborne | National | ||
Bell joined the National Party in 1958, and was chair of the Kaiti branch from 1962 to 1978.[2] He represented the Gisborne electorate in Parliament from 1975 to 1984,[4] when he was defeated by Allan Wallbank.[5] Bell was part of the small group of National MPs that stopped Robert Muldoon driving home drunk on the night that he had called the 1984 snap election.[6]
Bell was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[3]
Death
[edit]Bell died on 16 November 2011 in Tauranga, aged 82.[7][8]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Traue 1978, p. 47.
- ^ a b Gustafson 1986, p. 299.
- ^ a b Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 63. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 183.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 243.
- ^ Young, Audrey (30 June 2000). "Tyre let down so drunk PM could not drive car". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
- ^ "Bell, Robert (Bob) Linfield". Sunlive. 23 November 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- ^ "Obituaries — Allan Frederick Peachey, Robert Linfield Bell, Manu Alamein Kopu". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
References
[edit]- Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
- Traue, James Edward, ed. (1978). Who's Who in New Zealand, 1978 (11th ed.). Wellington: Reed Publishing.
- Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.