Alison Bell (politician)

Dr. Alison Mary Spencer Bell (Chinese: 鍾愛理遜) was a Scottish-born Hong Kong doctor and politician. She was the first woman to be elected to the Urban Council of Hong Kong.

Bell was born in Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburgh with the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1948. She moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and married Dr. Fok Hin-tak with whom they had five children. She was able to speak fluent Cantonese.[1]

She first ran for the Urban Council in the 1956 election as a candidate of Brook Bernacchi's Reform Club of Hong Kong, in which she received 4,122 votes, becoming the first woman to be elected to the council. In 1969, Bell decided not to seek for re-election in protest of the lack of executive power of the Urban Council.[2]

Her son Joseph Fok is a Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.

References

"市政局議員競選人訪問之五鍾愛理遜談婦女參政". Wah Kiu Yat Po. 24 February 1956. p. 6.
"鍾愛理遜不再競選以示抗議市局無權". The Kung Sheung Evening News. 1 February 1969. p. 1.

Political offices
New seat	Member of the Urban Council 1956–1963	Succeeded by Elsie Elliott
New seat	Member of the Urban Council 1965–1969	Succeeded by Raymond Kan

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[1] "市政局議員競選人訪問之五鍾愛理遜談婦女參政". Wah Kiu Yat Po. 24 February 1956. p. 6.

[2] "鍾愛理遜不再競選以示抗議市局無權". The Kung Sheung Evening News. 1 February 1969. p. 1.