Charles F Bell
Memorial: Chipping Sodbury Town Cross - Broad Street
Regiment: Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Corporal 527
Parents: William S and Elizabeth Bell (nee Morgan)
Marital status: Single
Home address: Horse Street, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol
Pre-war occupation: Mechanical Engineer Assistant
Date of birth: 1887
Place of birth: Bristol
Date of death: 17/10/1916
Buried/Commemorated at: Commemorated Le Touret Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais (IV. B 33), France
Age: 29
Further information:
Charles’ parents came to Chipping Sodbury from Bristol, sometime before Charles was born in 1877. His father is reputed to have come from Bath but was no longer around after Charles’s birth. His mother also came from Bath. He was raised by his mother with his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Morgan. He was born in Bristol, in the shadow of St. Mary Redcliffe on the harbourside, back in 1887. His grandmother Elizabeth Morgan moved to Chipping Sodbury from Bristol in Charles’ very early years. She was living in Horse Street, and working as a laundress by 1901, Charles was 14.
In 1914 Charles was based more in Birmingham than Bristol. So when he enlisted in Birmingham, he joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He went into their 16th Battalion, and by the outbreak of war was already a Corporal. History does not yet relate how his two war years were spent, but it may be that he didn’t get very far into France after some accident early on. He is commemorated (rather than buried) in Le Touret Military Cemetery at Richebourg-L’Avoue in the Pas de Calais. This lies between Bethune and Armentieres, and was heavily used in the early years of the war.
Charles F Bell is remembered on the Chipping Sodbury and District Memorial Cottage Hospital board, now at Yate and District Heritage Centre under Chipping Sodbury.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Alison Benton (2014) Remembered with Honour. Sprint Print, Yate. Forces War Records