Gift Motor Ambulances

The story that I remember about the Bells and the First World War is that they gifted an Ambulance and went with it to drive it.

Although Albany Bell and his family are paternal relations (Albany was my father’s uncle and 1st cousin once removed) they were maternal friends. My mother was born in Albany Bell’s house and named Edith probably after Aunt Edith Bell nee Clark. Albany Park, Dalwallinu also was named after Albany Bell.

There is truth in the story about the Ambulance.

Albany Bell was a Perth businessman who ran a chain of tea rooms around Western Australia. The continuing mark of these on the landscape is the "Castle" in Guildford Road, Mount Lawley which began life (perhaps built after the war) as the factory to produce the confectionary etc for the tea rooms.

When war broke out, his employees wondered how they could contribute. They decided to set aside 2½ per cent of their wages for war relief work. The staff decided to join them and then the firm said it would contribute pound for pound. In their first year they raised £600. The next year they decided to buy a "Motor Ambulance". It was built at the Midland Railway Workshops. The Railway employees had also gifted ambulances to the military.
When completed the ambulance was handed over with great ceremony on 1 July 1916. The Governor-General was in Perth briefly and the ceremony took place at the entrance to Government House with the Governor-General and the Governor present with other dignitaries. Later in the day when more employees could attend, due to the courtesy of the Governor's wife, this photo was taken inside the Government House grounds.

See reports in The West Australian, the Western Mail and this photo in the Western Mail

The ambulance was first to be used within the State and later overseas. It was requested that Private Albany Maston Bell, at present in camp with the Army Medical Corps, be the driver.

Whether he was the driver in England or France, I don't know, but he was certainly the driver in Perth. There was a spat with the local police who tried to book him for speeding. His defence was that he was obeying orders from his army superior and the case was dismissed. See The West Australian of 31 Aug 1916. Maston went to England, then France as a Driver in various Army units leaving Fremantle on 22 Sep 1916. See his Service Record.

Later Albany Bell was less convinced of the usefulness of gifting ambulances given the shocking way in which they were neglected. In a letter to A.A. Lightfoot, his brother-in-law (Great Aunt Lil's husband) which was published in The West Australian on 22 Mar 1917, he writes "I went down to Perham Downs, Salisbury Plains, to see Maston and for goodness' sake don't let our W.S. folk send any more gift ambulances or gift anything else over here to the military. At this one camp-and there are several round-I saw a dozen gift ambulances from all parts of Australia hung up in all sorts of conditions exposed to weather and in some cases they had only been run or rather misused a few months. The waste is appalling. I nearly had a blue fit when Mas. showed them to me. To my way of thinking, accustomed to a small compact business where our profits are dependent on saving the waste, the muddle seems awful, and if the different sections fight the Germans as hard as they fight each other for points, we shall soon see the end of the war. Tell Mr. Garner he was in the right over the need of more gift ambulances, or rather not the need of them, but the advisability of sending them here. Our anxiety to help must take some other form."