Name
William Bell
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
66474,
Royal Field Artillery
75th Battery Battery 263rd Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
William appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born on January 31st 1891 to Ellen Bell. His father’s details are not provided. However, records show that Ellen (née Males) married Philip Bell in 1877. Philip’s occupation is recorded as a gentleman’s steward. Perhaps this is a clue to his absence but, in any case he is not listed in subsequent census records. Baptism records name them as parents to William’s elder brother, Charles (bapt 1878), and census records reveal another older brother Frederick (b c1876), who became the village blacksmith, and that they were the grandsons of Eliza Males. The 1911 census still fails to record the father, but confirms that Ellen was still married and all three children are listed. They are recorded as tenants of a property on Great Green. Intriguingly, William’s occupation appears to have been listed as a solider (soldier?), but this has been crossed out.
William is recorded in the Parish Magazine of September 1915 as enlisting in 1914 after July, and serving in the 75th Battery of the Royal Field Artillery, and so he would have been twenty-four years old.
The North Herts Mail of February 15th 1917 reported that he had been on leave from Salonika, but contradicts the earlier Parish Magazine by suggesting that he had been in the army for six years.
By 1918 he was recorded as Corporal 66474, 75th Battery 263rd Brigade Royal Field Artillery with his home address as ‘around Great Green’.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
