With Anzac Day now just days away, we remember Mallee boy Harold Thomas Bell. Bell enlisted for World War I using his mother’s maiden surname and fought as Harry Wickham in modern-day Israel and Palestine. He is possibly the youngest member of the Light Horse to have died in the Middle East, aged 16 years, seven months. The Light Horse trooper featured in Walpeup’s silo art is modelled on Bell. HAROLD (Harry) Thomas Bell was born in Creswick near Ballarat.
His parents were Thomas Bell and Margaret (née Wickham), who had 10 children, including Samuel, Ethel, Annie, Rose, Daisy, Albert, Mavis and Reginald.
Harold was their fourth-born.