Name
John Leigh Bedale
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
The Parish Magazine of October 1915 records John, who was serving as a Lieutenant on H.M.S. Bacchante and as ‘indirectly connected to Pirton’. Michael Newbery suggests that John was related to the Rev. Frederick Bedale who was vicar of Pirton between 1896 and 1903. The North Herts Mail of August 12th 1915 states that the vicar’s brother had been shot through the thigh and was in hospital in Rouen. It was his third wound, but that does not seem likely to be John.
H.M.S. Bacchante was an armoured cruiser captained by Eric Wheler. In the early days of the war she was part of the 7th Cruiser Squadron North Sea, Cruiser Force C and was involved in the Battle of Heligoland Bight on August 28th 1914 and then, in October, was part of the escort for a convoy to Gibraltar. From January to March 1915 she helped defend the Suez Canal and, from April 1915 to 1916, was in the Dardanelles as part of the Gallipoli campaign. Most notably during this period, she was involved in the landing at Anzac Cove and, when the infantry came under fire from Turkish artillery at Gaba Tepe, she bravely approached close to the shore and fired directly on the gun emplacements, in an attempt to silence them, and in the process demolished the Turkish barracks. In 1917 she became part of the 9th Cruiser Squadron, West Africa.
The date that John joined the ship’s company is not known, but he presumably had been involved in some, if not all, of these actions.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
