Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer on the R.M.S. Titanic

Joseph Bell was baptised in the church of St Thomas a Becket on the 4^th of May 1861, and was named after both his grandfather and great-grandfather.

After Farlam village school he progressed to attending school in Carlisle. At age 15 he was apprenticed as an engine fitter at R & H Stephenson Company shipyard, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Having completed his apprenticeship in Newcastle, Joseph in 1883 entered the service of the Mercantile Marine sailing under the flag of the Liverpool & River Plate Steam Navigation Company for two years, then began his career with the White Star Line serving on some eighteen ships beginning with RMS Oceanic to RMS Titanic, covering the period from 1885 to his death in 1912.

The gravestone memorial in the old churchyard of St Thomas a Becket, Hallbankgate, is annotated with the following text:

JOSEPH BELL AGED 51 YEARS SON OF THE ABOVE

MARGARET BELL CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE SS TITANIC

WHO WAS LOST WITH ALL HIS ENGINEERING STAFF

IN THE FOUNDERING OF THAT VESSEL IN THE ATLANTIC

OCEON AFTER COLLISION WITH AN ICEBERG APRIL 12^th

1912.

“No greater love hath man than this. That a

man lay down his life for his friends”

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