Courage of onlyfootballer to winVC remembered

Paul Jeeves

THE only English professional footballer to be awarded the Victoria Cross will be honoured by Green Howards veterans who will travel to France to pay their respects following his heroics at the Battle of the Somme.

The Friends of the Green Howards Regimental Museum will honour the bravery of Second Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell, who was awarded the highest military decoration for his actions in 1916.

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A memorial, which was organised by the Friends of the museum and the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), was erected in 2000 at the site of his grave in Contalmaison.

The Friends of the museum, which is based in Richmond, North Yorkshire, will again visit the memorial to mark the 10th anniversary of the dedication ceremony and the sacrifice that Second Lt Bell and other Green Howards made in the battle.

Among those attending the main ceremony on Saturday will be members of Second Lt Bell’s family as well as representatives of the PFA and a civic party from Contalmaison.

The service of re-dedication will be led by the Rev Clive Artley, a former Green Howards officer. Buglers from the Yorkshire Corps of Drums will sound the Last Post and Reveille during the service and the Green Howards Association Regimental Standard will honour the memorial.

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Major David Nicholson, of the Friends of the Green Howards Regimental Museum, said: “Ten years after the dedication of the memorial to Second Lt Donald Bell, and as we near the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, we are proud to return to Contalmaison to remember his sacrifice.”

Second Lt Bell, from Harrogate, was a teacher and played football as an amateur for Crystal Palace, Bishop Auckland and Newcastle United, before turning professional for Bradford Park Avenue in 1913.

He joined the 9th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment – as the Green Howards were then known – in November 1914, and his actions on July 5, 1916, at Horseshoe Trench near La Boisselle during the Battle of the Somme won him the VC.

He attacked a German machine gun position, running through open ground and then shooting the gunner and blowing up the position with hand grenades. Five days later, he was killed in an attack on another German position.

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