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.
