{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Joshua Thomas Bell | honorific_suffix = | image = Joshua Thomas Bell.jpg | caption = | office = Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly | term_start = 29 June 1909 | term_end = 10 March 1911 | predecessor = John Leahy | successor = William Drayton Armstrong | constituency = Dalby | constituency_AM1 = Dalby | assembly1 = Queensland Legislative | term_start1 = 29 April 1893 | term_end1 = 10 March 1911 | predecessor1 = John Jessop | successor1 = William Vowles | birth_date = {{Birth date|1863|3|13|df=y}} | birth_place = Ipswich, Queensland, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|1911|3|10|1863|3|13|df=y}} | death_place = Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | resting_place = Toowong Cemetery | party = Liberals | other_party = Kidstonites, Ministerial | spouse = Catherine Jane Ferguson (m.1903 d.1943) | alma_mater = Trinity Hall, Cambridge | occupation = Barrister | relations = Sir Joshua Peter Bell (father), John Ferguson (father-in-law), John Alexander Bell (uncle) }}
'''Joshua Thomas Bell''' (13 March 1863 – 10 March 1911) was an Australian barrister and politician.
Bell was the son of Sir Joshua Peter Bell, and his wife Margaret Miller, née Dorsey and was born in Ipswich, Queensland. Bell was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was president of the Cambridge Union.<ref>{{acad|id=BL881JT|name=Bell, Joshua Thomas}}</ref>
left|thumb|Monument at the grave of Joshua Thomas Bell.
Bell was admitted to practice as a lawyer in England and was a marshal on the Northern Assizes circuit in 1888. In 1889 Bell returned to Australia where he became the private secretary of the judge Sir Samuel Griffith. In 1893 Bell became a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the electoral district of Dalby in which his family home, Jimbour Homestead, was located.<ref name=Register>{{cite QHR|15716|Jimbour House|600941|accessdate=12 August 2015}}</ref> He married the daughter of John Ferguson in 1903 and had two children.<ref>Serle, Percival (1949). "Bell, Joshua Thomas". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 6 July 2009.</ref>
In 1901, Bell unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of Darling Downs in Australia's first federal by-election, but he was defeated by Littleton Ernest Groom, the son of the original member.
Bell died at Rakeevan, his Graceville residence on 10 March 1911.<ref name= graceville>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19684186 |title=DEATH OF THE HON. J. T. BELL. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |date=11 March 1911 |accessdate=10 January 2016 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Bell was accorded a state funeral which proceeded from St John's Anglican Cathedral to the Toowong Cemetery<ref name= funeralnotice>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19684057 |title=Family Notices. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |date=11 March 1911 |accessdate=10 January 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> where he was buried next to his father.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * D. B. Waterson, '[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bell-joshua-thomas-5196 Bell, Joshua Thomas (1863 - 1911)]', ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, p. 258. Retrieved 6 July 2009 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120605040002/https://online.brisbane.qld.gov.au/cemeteries/cemeteries_step3.jsp?mapdisplay=142618 Bell, Joshua Thomas ] — Brisbane City Council Grave Location Search
==External links== * Joshua Thomas Bell entry on [http://www.jimbour.com/index.php?MMID=1079&SMID=1106 Jimbour History]. Jimbour Homestead was the Bell family home for many years.
{{s-start}} {{s-par|au-qld}} {{s-bef|before=John Leahy}} {{s-ttl|title=Speaker of the Legislative Assembly|years=1909 – 1911}} {{s-aft|after=William Drayton Armstrong}} {{s-bef|before=John Jessop}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Dalby|years=1893–1911}} {{s-aft|after=William Vowles}} {{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Joshua Thomas}} Category:1863 births Category:1911 deaths Category:Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Category:Burials at Toowong Cemetery Category:Speakers of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Category:Australian people of Irish descent Category:Colony of Queensland people Category:People educated at Brisbane Grammar School Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge