Virtual
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Australia

Donald was born in Herberton, Queensland, Australia in 1912, the son of John William Bell, a planter, and his wife Ethel nee Williams. He was one of four brothers who all went to New Guinea before before WW2 and all Enlisted

Donald was a plantation manager at the Jerapax plantation on Tobor Island, Territory of New Guinea. He had been working in the Territory of New Guinea from about 1922.

Donald married Elizabeth Carruthers Hetherington in Sydney in 1941. There were no children.

He had enlisted in the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (as a Private, no. NGX126), on 08 Jul 1940 at Madang, New Guinea and was discharged on 22 Oct 1941. He served in Singapore before Japan entered the War and was invalided out. This was possibly when he married or moved from Madang to Rabaul. He does not appear to have served during the Japanese invasion. When the Japanese invaded New Britain in Jan 1942 he was captured on the north coast and interned as a civilian prisoner.

He died on board the "Montevideo Maru" when it was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of the Philippines on 01 Jul 1942, en route from Rabaul to Hainan, where he was destined for forced labour.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bell-25160