|
Date: |
|
Description: | 274 ms letters, 5 March 1918 - 30 April 1919, written by him to his parents whilst serving as a Chaplain at the Royal Artillery Command Depot, Ripon, (March 1918), then with the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (May 1918), (18th Brigade, 6th Division) on the Western Front and with the Army of Occupation in Germany, the 2/4th Battalion Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment in Germany (March 1919) and at a military hospital in France (April 1919), describing undertaking various training courses for service abroad, ministering to the troops at Ripon, working in the Church Institute, embarking for France, travelling to and from the frontline at night to visit the troops and his concern when his Commanding Officer wished to keep him from doing so, visiting Casualty Clearing Stations, the difficulties of organising and carrying out church services due to the continual movement of the Battalion, helping out at a Dressing Station, collecting the dead from the battlefield and conducting funerals, marching to Germany with the Army of Occupation and being billeted near Cologne, helping to set up a Church Army Recreation Hut, contracting influenza and being sent back to the UK on sick leave, returning to Germany and joining the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, travelling to France and working at No 5 Stationary Hospital, Dieppe, prior to demobilisation; together with photocopies (14pp) of ms diary extracts, 2 - 16 August 1914, 2 January - 30 November 1918 and 20 February 1919, describing the outbreak of war, his appointment as a military chaplain, the death of his father, applying for foreign service and his leave from the Western Front; an ms note (2pp) from C Dean, Medical Officer to the 1st West Yorkshires, congratulating Bell on the award of his Military Cross; a ts memo (1p, February 1919) relating to Germans saluting British officers; and ms diary pages (8pp), 31 December 1915 - 8 January 1916, author unknown, describing the evacuation of Cape Helles, Gallipoli.
Cataloguer JHK
Catalogue date 2007-11-13 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Bell, J A H | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
|
|