Nan arrived in Darwin on the 4th February 1954 and started teaching infants at Darwin Higher Primary school. Through the next decades she taught at Darwin Primary, Parap, Jabiru, Larrakeyah and Anula. Nan had not been in Darwin for very long when she met Hilton 'Curly' Bell a pearler who came to Darwin from Queensland. They married at the old Knuckey St Methodist church on the 10th March 1956. They first lived in a Sidney Williams hut, at Pee Wee camp at East Point before moving to Fannie Bay. They had three children Hilton, Doug and Martin, the boys where still young when 'Curly' died in 1973. Nan retired from teaching in 1994 after forty years. She supported organisations such as the Sailing Club, Darwin Symphony Orchestra, National Trust and U3A and travelled. Nan wrote that 'she was always a self-effacing giver, a person who wanted to be productive and useful'.,
Subject
Women,
Northern Territory,
Related materials
Forrest, Peter and Sheila. "Nan Bell: A gift of memories" Northern Territory News, 21 November 2006. p.34-35.,