Joseph Nicholas Bell (7 March 1864 – 17 December 1922) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician and Justice of the Peace. He was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Newcastle East Newcastle East is an inner city suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located immediately east of Newcastle's central business district at the mouth of the Hunter River. The Awabakal and Worimi peoples are acknowledged by City of Newc ...

in the 1922 General Election, but died a month later. For many years Bell was General Secretary of the

National Amalgamated Union of Labour The National Amalgamated Union of Labour (NAUL) was a general union in the United Kingdom. History The trade union was founded in Feb 1889 as the United Tyne and District Labourers Association and in March 1889 the Amalgamated Society of Shipyar ...

. In 1896, Bell married

Florence Harrison Florence Susan Harrison (1877–1955) was an English Australians, English Australian Art Nouveau and Pre-Raphaelite illustrator of poetry and children's books. Many of her books were published by Blackie and Son. She illustrated books by notable ...

, a teacher and prominent

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

activist. He was first selected in 1914 as Labour candidate for Leith Burghs to contest the by-election when he came third. In 1918 he was selected for the Edinburgh seat of

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

, but was replaced later that year. He was then selected by the Labour Party to fight the

constituency at the 1922 General Election. Already ill, he was unable to travel from London to campaign in the seat, but was elected in his absence,''The Times'', 18 Dec. 1922 defeating the Coalition Liberal MP, Harry Barnes. Bell died a month after his election, aged 58, and thus became one of only a handful of elected British MPs never to have taken their seats. At the subsequent by-election

Arthur Henderson Arthur Henderson (13 September 1863 – 20 October 1935) was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the first Labour cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniquely, served three separate terms as Leader of th ...

held the seat for Labour.

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* 1864 births 1922 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1922–1923 Chairs of the Labour Party (UK) British trade union leaders Elected officials who died without taking their seats {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub

See also

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