First Award to the 1st/5th Bedfords

Monday 24th January 1916: Private R Bell has received the Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria Cross, and was included in the list published this morning, the official record stating that it was awarded: “for conspicuous gallantry and determination during operations at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli Peninsula, on many occasions, notably the following: On August 15th 1915, he organised and led a party of men when their officers had become casualties. On August 16th he went out under a very heavy fire, dressed and brought in a wounded officer. On August 17th he made a valuable reconnaissance of a Turkish position”.

While he was only a private in August, when his gallantry earned him this decoration, he has now been advanced to the rank of Company Quarter Master Sergeant. He has recently been in the Fern Hill Auxiliary Hospital, Bacup [Lancashire] to which he went from a Manchester hospital after a lengthy stay in Saint Elmo hospital, Malta. Last week he was discharged from hospital and arrived at Bedford.

Writing recently about some of his experiences Company Quarter Master Sergeant Bell said: “Suddenly the lieutenant gave a little gasp and exclaimed ‘They got me that time’. I helped him to a bit safer cover a few yards away and found he was hit through the leg just above the knee. The bullet had gone right through his leg and out the other side. I made a few suggestions as to his safety, but the lieutenant said he would crawl back and tell one of the men to come down and give me a hand when it was dusk. I didn’t like letting him go, but after he had left me I looked round and saw a lot more heaps of khaki lying about. I found seven men and one officer all dead. They looked as if they had been dead a couple of days. I began to get anxious about Lieutenant R(1), as we had pre-arranged that he should give a certain signal. Glancing to my right, I saw him creeping along in the wrong direction. He had evidently lost his way and was getting nearer the enemy’s lines. I yelled to him to stop where he was and I would come. I got to him and had to bandage his leg, as the dressing had slipped through his crawling among the bushes”.

“After this was done, I found out I was in the same boat as himself – I could not tell just which direction to make for. We arranged that I should make my way back to our trenches and ask the others to hang something over the parapet as a guide. I started off and, after a few minutes dodging about the bushes and rocks I noticed a khaki helmet ‘bob up’ for a second or so. When I succeeded in getting to the trench I went and reported the circumstances to Lieutenant N. He and R being personal friends, he was much cut up. He offered to hold up the periscope above the parapet as a guide for me to bring in the wounded lieutenant. Well, I needed to have a charmed life that day; the Turks could not hit me beyond riddling my water bottle and helmet, while a bullet went through my boot, skinning a couple of toes. However, by difficult bursts of crawling I succeeded in getting the lieutenant back and subsequently went back to endeavour to reach a wounded Londoner. I got to him and tried to lift him, but he was in too much pain and the firing so heavy that I had to abandon the task. He was too badly wounded to get in without a stretcher, so I made him as comfortable as I could, gave him some water and promised to come down again for him with s stretcher. However, things so turned out that I did not get the chance to go again myself”.

Source: Luton News 27th January 1916

(1) This may be Lieutenant Rawlings, mentioned as being with 3rd/5th Bedfords in the article on 20th January - he would have gone home with his wound and then been posted to a second or third line battalion for recuperation.

3rd/5th Bedfords at Halton Park

Bayonet practice [X550/1/195]

Thursday 20th January 1916: The boys of the third line of the 5th Bedfordshires are spending a healthy and not unhappy time among the hills of Buckinghamshire. The camp is a large one and is situated at Halton Park, the residence of Lord Rothschild. Innumerable wooden huts dot the hillside and accommodation has been found for thousands of men, for other regiments besides the 3rd/5th Beds are quartered there. And there are still lots of vacant beds and plenty of khaki suits that require to be filled. The situation of the camp is beautiful. A great expanse of fair English country stretches away westward and north and south is an encircling arm of hills, beyond one of which is Tring. In the middle distance is Aylesbury and on the left of the picture is Wendover, nestling at the foot of a hill. The palatial mansion of Lord Rothschild stands out boldly against the sky and on a distant hill can be seen the monument to the brave men of Buckinghamshire who fell in the South African war.

It was on a day that was uncommonly like spring that our representative and a colleague, accompanied by Lieutenant R W Lambert paid a brief visit to the camp and were very kindly received by Lieutenant-Colonel R R B Orlebar. We learned that the total strength of the battalion is nearly 600, but this is likely to be increased by arrival, for training, of numbers of Derby recruits(1). The spirit of the men is excellent and the behaviour exemplary. By the kindness of the Acting Adjutant, Lieutenant Rawlings, just returned from Gallipoli, we had an opportunity of seeing a portion of the Battalion at drill and bayonet exercises, the work being very smartly and intelligently performed.

The huts are warm and comfortable and lighted by electricity. Each building contains board beds, with straw palliasses and plenty of blankets. Then there are the baths, a separate cubicle being provided for each man and hot and cold shower baths are much appreciated.

The food is wholesome, varied and plentiful. For instance the following dishes figure in the breakfast menu for the present week: rissoles, bacon and tomatoes, corned beef, boiled bacon, sausages and liver, steaks and onions. Then for dinner, roast or boiled meat or brown stew, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, rice, bread and fruit puddings and fruit salad. Soup is supplied for supper.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 18th February 1916

(1) Lord Derby’s scheme, introduced in Autumn 1915, required men between 18 and 41 not in a reserved occupation to make an attestation at a recruiting office after which they would be put into the reserve in one of 46 groups which would be called when needed, single men, for example, before married men. The scheme was superseded by conscription in March 1916.