Donald Simpson Bell


Donald Simpson Bell, VC was an English school teacher and professional footballer. During World War I he was awarded the Victoria Cross for actions during the Battle of the Somme in mid-1916.

Football

Bell was born on 3 December 1890 to Smith and Annie Bell, who resided in Queen's Rd, Harrogate. He attended St Peter's Church of England Primary School and Harrogate Grammar School before going to Westminster College. A noted sportsman at college while studying he played as an amateur with Crystal Palace and later for Newcastle United. He returned to Harrogate and became a schoolteacher at Starbeck Council School and a member of the National Union of Teachers, and to supplement his salary in 1912 he signed professional forms with Bradford .. He played as a defender |defender or midfielder. He was married to Rhoda Bell.

World War I

When World War I broke out, he became the first professional footballer to enlist into the British Army – joining the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1915. He was rapidly promoted to Lance Corporal and then was commissioned into the 9th Battalion, Green Howards in 1915. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 5 July 1916 at Horseshoe Trench, Somme, France.
Describing the deed in a letter to his parents, Bell stated that "I must confess that it was the biggest fluke alive and I did nothing. I only chucked one bomb, but it did the trick". Bell was shot in the head by a sniper on 10 July 1916 while attacking a machine-gun post near the village of Contalmaison. He is buried at Gordon Dump Cemetery, near Albert. His Victoria Cross was formerly displayed at the Green Howards Museum in Richmond, Yorkshire. On 25 November 2010 it was auctioned by London medal specialists, Spink. It was purchased for a reported £252,000 by the Professional Footballers' Association and will go on display at the National Football Museum in Manchester.
A book on his life and that of his friend and fellow VC Captain Archie White called "A Breed Apart" by Richard Leake was published in 2008 by Great North Publishing. On 9 July 2000, through the initiative of "The Friends of the Green Howards Museum", General The Lord Dannatt, then Colonel of the regiment unveiled a memorial dedicated to Bell on the spot where he lost his life at Contalmaison, now known as Bell's Redoubt. It was an event well covered by television and every year since then a small service has been held there. In 2010 the tenth anniversary of the unveiling was celebrated and in 2016 at Bell's Redoubt, with a much improved memorial, there is scheduled to be a remembrance service on the hundredth anniversary of Bell's heroism.. There is a memorial plaque to him in Wesley Methodist Church, Harrogate, where he was a Sunday School Teacher.

Footnotes