I’m not quite sure what this article is for, only that I’ve been thinking about writing it for some time. Normally in family history we’re writing about families, and single people tend to get left out unless they have been extraordinary for some reason. Bella Hall wasn’t extraordinary, but there are some things she leaves behind.

Her brother and my great-grandfather, William Hall, was born and raised in Allansford, the middle child of five siblings: Mary Ann, David, Isabella and John. Bella was born on 8 October 1863 and was two years younger than William.

William’s work on the railways took him to Kilmore, where he met and married Jessie McKenzie and settled there for the rest of his life. I don’t know how much he might have visted Allansford over the years, or whether his family visited very much, but a surviving photograph album of Jessie’s contains quite a few photographs that were taken in studios at Warrnambool (near Allansford) which are likely to be from the Hall side. None of the photos are labelled, but my grandmother (daughter of William and Jessie) was able to recognise a handful of people, including Bella Hall, of whom there are three photos.

One is a standard portrait.

Another is a studio picture taken with an unknown man, to whom Bella might have been engaged, as in the picture she is clearly wearing a ring on her left ring finger. If so, the marriage never eventuated.

And the final picture is the only one in the album taken outdoors, Bella appears with her nephew Alexander John Jamieson Fraser.

On the back of the picture Bella has written Taken by a travelling artist. B. Hall. The stamp on the back says Louis Bertram Photographic Artist.

The story in the family is that Bella Hall was something of a meddler, and that she convinced her sister Mary Ann to be rid of her husband Simon Fraser. Nobody knows if this is true.

She appears to have lived at Allansford her whole life until the death of her mother in 1918, in fact all of the children apart from William were living at Allansford at that time.

In 1891, 11 year old Edwin McMillan (a grand nephew of Bella’s parents, so perhaps a second cousin to her) visited Allansford and wrote remarkable letters to his parents about his experiences. In the letter to his mother he wrote Bella and I went to Tooram on Saturday with Mrs Lenox and Mary and Jack and we caught about 3 doz small bream and one trover valley [trevally]. In the letter to his father he wrote I am going round in the cart with the hot cross buns. Bella is the old woman that is to run the show and I hold the money. No doubt Bella was doing deliveries for the family business.

After her mother’s death in 1918 she moved to Melbourne, and from then until her death 28 years later she lived at four addresses in Malvern.

On arriving in Malvern she lived at 63 Jordan Street, Malvern with or very near her nephew pictured above, John Alexander Jamieson Fraser and his wife, Emily Margaret (nee Patterson). JAJ Fraser was a butcher, like his Uncle John Hall (Bella’s brother) who ran a butcher shop in Allansford for many years.

In the electoral rolls of 1924 and 1925 she appears living at 22 Evandale Road, Malvern. In the roll of 1931 she’s living at 14 Winter Street. In 1936 and 1937 she’s at 20 Lambeth Street and her occupation for those years is ‘Art needlework’. JAJ and Emily were living at 28 Lambeth Street during this time. In 1943 she’s still in Lambeth Street but at number 35 and her occupation is home duties.

She died on 1 August 1946 aged 82 and was buried the following day at St Kilda Cemetery. Mary Ann Fraser was buried with her two years later. Mary Ann’s daughter and son-in-law Mabel (nee Fraser) and Walter Phippard’s ashes were later interred with them.