Lot 754

Description

Victorias 60th year of reign, 1897 in gold (31mm) by Stokes & Sons, uniface, the reverse engraved with town hall in relief 'Presented to the Major of Ballarat A. Bell Esq./By His Fellow Councillors/McDonald Shoppee/Morey, Retallack/Elliott, Heinz, Whykes/and/Brokenshire'. Has had brooch mount removed and polished probably unique and very rare as a gold medalet of the Stokes 1897 series.

Alexander Bell was born in Dumfermline, Scotland in 1850 and came to Australia as a young boy settling with his family in Carisbrook north of Ballarat. In 1865 aged 15 he entered the grocery business in Spring Gully where he remained for eighteen months before moving to another grocers in Ballarat. Six years later he opened his own grocery store at the corner of South and Drummond Streets, (Ballarat). After running the business for several years he then took up sharebroking and established the firm of Bell, Lambert & Co. In 1891 he was elected to the City Council serving as Mayor 1896-1897. He resigned in 1899 and then rejoined in 1910 serving again as Mayor 1917-1918, he was a Councillor when he died in 1931. He held several semi-public positions, among them that of Chairman of the Ballarat Woollen Company and member of the board of the Ballarat Tramway Company and of the Land and Mortgage Company. He was also a member of most local institutions such as the old Colonists' Association, the Mechanics Institute and the Commercial Club. He was a Freemason, had passed all the official chairs in the St Andrews Order being Grand Master in 1877. For some years he was a trustee of the Miners' Association and took an active part in the affairs of the South Street Debating Society. He died 27th March, 1931. With extract from 'Ballarat and Vicinity' published c.1893.