REDEDICATION OF BELL MEMORIAL
21st September 2010

On the 11th September Friends of the Green Howards Museum met to rededicate the memorial to Second Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell VC. They were joined by representatives of Donald Bell's family and the Professional Footballers' Association.

Bell who was from Harrogate played football as an amateur for Crystal Palace, Bishop Auckland and Newcastle United, before turning professional for Bradford Park Avenue in April 1913. He joined the 9th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment in November 1914.

For his action on 5 July 1916 at Horse Shoe Trench near La Boiselle during the Battle of the Somme he was awarded the VC. He attacked a German machine gun position, running through open ground and then shooting the gunner and blowing up the position with Mills bombs. Five days later he was killed in an attack on another German position at Contalmaison.

In 2000 a memorial was erected at the site of his action, now called Bell's Redoubt, in Contalmaison. The service of rededication held on the 11th September was conducted in French by the Rev'd Clive Artley.

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