CFHS code : MG180
Parish : St Mary the Great
Inscription : In Loving Memory my dear husband FREDERICK A BELL 11 Dec 1943 aged 58
Monument : Kerb stones/Flowerholder
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.20207, 0.13833819 – click here for location
Monument
The inscription is on the east side of the flower holder.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of my dear husband Frederick A Bell
died Dec. 11 1943 aged 58 years
Frederick Arthur Bell (7 April 1885 – 11 December 1943)
Frederick was the son of Frederick and Frances (née Stead) and grew up on Gloucester Street. His father was a house painter and his mother was a college servant and aged 16 Frederick was working as a painter’s apprentice. He married Florence Bertha Rowell (1882-1958) in 1908 and they had at least one daughter: Constance Louisa May (1910-1985). The family lived at 33 Great Eastern Street and Frederick worked as a painter and decorator. He died in Cambridge aged 58 years old.
It is known from burial records that there are two other members of the Bell family buried in the same grave
Frances Bell (née Steed) (19 March 1858 – 27 January 1942)
Frnces was born in Swaffham Bulbeck, and baptised there on 30 May 1858. She was the eldest daughter of John (1827-1894) and Charlotte (née Howard) (1832-1921) and grew up at the Royal Oak, Swaffham Bulbeck, where her father was the publican. Aged 13 she was living at Pound Hill, Cambridge with her paternal aunt Ellen and grandfather Peter Steed. In 1881 she was working as a college housemaid and living at 12 Christ Lane. She married Frederick Ball in the summer of 1884 at St. Giles Church and they had three children: Frederick Arthur, Alfred Harold (1887-1926) and Alice Mary (1890-1919).
Frederick worked as a painter and they lived at Gloucester Street and then Shelly Row. He died at home in December December 1909 and was buried at St. Giles Church. Frances moved to 44 Great Eastern Street and in 1921 was documented as being a bedmaker at Trinity College. By 1939 she had retired after working at Trinity College for 40 years and died at home aged 83 years old. Her funeral was held on 31 January at Mill Road Cemetery chapel, attended by her surviving child Frederick. The notice of the funeral in local newspapers ended with ‘will the Master and Fellows of Trinity College please accept sincere thanks from Mr Bell and family for kindness shown to Mrs Bell since her retirement’.
Alice Mary Bell (1890 – January 1919)
Alice died at 44 Great Eastern Street aged 29 and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 1 February 1919
Source:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
Parish burial records for St Mary the Great
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]