Valentine Graeme Bell

Valentine Graeme Bell (1839–1908) was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on the railway system of Jamaica.

Born in London on 27 June 1839, he was youngest son of William Bell, a merchant of Aldersgate Street who was subsequently official assignee in bankruptcy. Educated at private schools, and apprenticed in 1855 to Messrs. Wren & Hopkinson, engineers, of Manchester, he was taken on in 1859 by James Brunlees.

For Brunlees, Bell was resident engineer in 1863-5 on the Cleveland Railway, and in 1866-8 on the Mont Cenis Railway, for which he superintended the construction of special locomotives in Paris in 1869-70. While in charge of the Mont Cenis line he rebuilt for the French government the Route Impériale between St. Jean de Maurienne and Lanslebourg after its destruction by flood.

Bel was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 4 May 1869, and in 1871 he set up in private practice in London. In 1872-5 he carried out waterworks at Cadiz, for a company which then failed and involved him in monetary losses. With Sir George Barclay Bruce he constructed, during the same period, a railway for the Compagnie du chemin de fer du vieux port de Marseille.

In 1880 Bell took service under the Colonial Office, in Jamaica, where his major work was done. Until 1883 he was engaged in reconstructing the government railway in Jamaica between Kingston and Spanish Town, extending the line to Ewarton and Porus, and later to Montego Bay and Port Antonio. The governor Sir Henry Norman appointed him in 1886 a member of the legislative council.

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