Arthur Wilbraham Dillon Bell (4 April 1856 – 29 May 1943) was a civil engineer active in New Zealand and Western Australia.
Bell received his secondary schooling in New Zealand and after a time in journalism and as a public servant, he went to England to train as an engineer.
At eighteen he left school and began acting as secretary to his father, who was then Speaker of the House of Representatives, and in his spare time did free-lance journalism for The Wellington Independent,[3] making three hundred pounds a year.
[7] As a member of a commission to look into such matters, he also had a hand in the building of a complete system of sewerage and drainage for Wellington City Council.
For one thing, he was held totally accountable for the harbour defence forts in every particular, but was prevented by governmental parsimony from travelling outside Wellington personally to superintend progress.
He had become experienced in the provision of water for gold miners, and the surveying and building of tracks, roads and bridges; and his work on constructing colonial railway lines and harbours was widely known.
By 1891 O'Connor, like Bell, had become dissatisfied with his treatment by his superiors and accepted the position of Chief Engineer in West Australia, offered by John Forrest, the Premier.
"[9] He was charged by Forrest with the responsibility for all engineering initiatives in the state, and was also made manager of the railways: a double workload.
Thus began an important ten-year partnership of two strong, farsighted, determined men at a time of great expansion largely owing to gold discoveries.
In 1892 and 1893 huge numbers of people were rushing to unearth the newly discovered gold at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the distant east of West Australia.
It involved creating a massive reservoir west of the Darling Range by damming the Helena River, a short distance inland from Perth.
[13] In the words of a long and warmly appreciative eulogy about him published in The Morning Herald on his retirement and imminent return to New Zealand, he was "... practically assistant engineer-in-chief through the exceptionally busy period in this state from 1894 to 1897, when the West was beginning to feel the full force of the boom consequent upon the rich gold discoveries.
There was a lot of controversy attached to the Coolgardie plan and Forrest eventually got sick of this and other attacks and resigned, in 1901, to join the new Federal parliament.
There followed a series of unstable governments in West Australia and O'Connor not only lost the support of the strong arm of Forrest, but also encountered criticism and abuse from the parliament and the press, some of it quite vitriolic.
That morning, 10 March 1902, he prepared for his customary early ride but his usual companion, his youngest daughter, was unwell.
His deft revolver shot ended his life.He had left a note: 'The Coolgardie Scheme is alright and I could finish it if I got a chance and protection from misrepresentation but there is no hope of that now and it is better that it should be given to some entirely new man to do who will be untrammelled by prior responsibility'.
A brilliant man whose work had been of extraordinary value to West Australia had died unnecessarily and in anguish at the early age of 59, leaving a large family.
These were the completion of works at Fremantle Harbour, including extending the quays, installing the shed and cranes, designing a graving dock, and preparing for future expansion.
The very lengthy article in The Morning Herald testifies to the range of his skills and experience, and to his huge capacity for work.
Bell was a devoted and imaginative grandfather, an ardent gardener and a broad reader, in Latin and Greek as well as his native English, and consoled himself for his lack of formal work with these activities.