Hector Hercules Bell CBE (1 December 1876 – 12 November 1964) was an Australian contractor, municipal councillor, and tramway administrator.

Following an initially itinerant working life, Bell married and became a successful businessman, later being elected as a councillor to Richmond City Council.

He was the seventh child of the family, and ran away home at 14, spending three years undertaking itinerant work in rural Victoria.

[1][2] Following marriage, he and Emma moved to Perth, Western Australia, where Bell became a construction contractor, working on a variety of projects including The Causeway over the Swan River.

[1][2] During his councillorship he became Richmond's representative on the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works in 1913,[3] and the newly formed Hawthorn Tramway Trust in 1915.

In concert with his career as a councillor he continued his contracting business, and due to the success of this enterprise and the accompanying wealth, in 1924 he, Emma, and their three children moved to Hawthorn.

[5] in 1928 Bell ran for a seat in the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Victoria contesting the electorate of Melbourne South Province.

[6] He had been endorsed by then Labor Premier Edmond Hogan in April 1928,[7] but lost the 2 June 1928 election to Nationalist Norman Fraser Falkiner.

[10] Falkiner died in May 1929 in London,[11] creating a Legislative Council vacancy, Bell however withdrew from the election in early June 1929.

Also resulting from Bell's travels in the USA was a larger role for buses in the MMTB, with some cable tram routes converted to diesel bus.

Many surplus single truck trams were converted to one person operation for the newly introduced all night services, rather than being scrapped during 1936–37.

One such occurrence was in 1948, when he accused the Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employees' Association's Victorian state secretary, Clarrie O'Shea of "always holding a pistol at our heads".

[1][2][46][48][49] Following retirement from the MMTB Bell was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in January 1950,[50] for his work in the field of public transportation.