Jacob Coxon Bell

Photo: B. Chandler

Jacob Coxon Bell

In Amble West Cemetery is a family headstone which includes on one side:

Also of
J. Coxon Bell
54th Bn.
Canadian Infantry
killed in action
March 5 1917
aged 33 years
He lies at Bruay,
France.

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Jacob Coxon Bell, named after his paternal uncle, was born on 7th February 1884 to local innkeepers Edward Bell and his wife Agnes (nee Hanagan), and was baptised in St. Andrews Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne a month later. In 1881 the family were living at the Byker Tavern and at the time of Jacob’s birth that was made up of William Percy, Isabella and Margaret. In 1886 Agnes died after the birth of their youngest child Edward, who also died, and two years later father Edward died whilst the family were living at the Golden Lion public house in Ouseburn.

The four siblings moved to live with their paternal widowed Aunt Elizabeth in Church Street, Rothbury where Jacob attended Morpeth Grammar School from 1897-99, but by the turn of the century they went their separate ways. Isabella married, Margaret was working as a servant near Bellingham and older brother William emigrated to Canada. School records indicate that Jacob joined the merchant navy after leaving school, and he could have worked his way to Canada, as no passenger records for him exist.

Jacob applied for a homestead grant in Saskatchewan in 1904, but two years later was lodging and working in Saskatoon. The 1911 Canadian census lists him as a clerk living in Alberni Street, Vancouver and four years later he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in New Westminster, British Columbia on 23rd December 1915. He gave as his address the Badminton Hotel, his next of kin as his sister Isabella still living in Amble, and this six feet tall clerk became Private 760605 in the 121st (Western Irish) Battalion.

Jacob passed his medical seven months later at Camp Vernon, when he assigned his pay to a Mrs Gibbons in Broadway, Vancouver, and made out his will in favour of his younger sister Margaret in Amble.

On 24th August 1916 Jacob sailed as Lance Corporal Bell into Liverpool on board the SS Empress of Britain and a posting to camp at Bramshott, Hampshire. In January 1917 the 121st was absorbed into the 16th Reserve Battalion based at Seaford in Sussex, and the following month Lance Corporal Bell was drafted into the 54th Battalion and posted to France as part of the 11th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division.

Jacob joined the Battalion at Berthonval Woods where they were preparing for an attack on enemy lines at Vimy Ridge. On 1st March the Battalion took part in a Divisional gas attack the object being to destroy enemy lines and gain information. They advanced to No Man’s Land without serious opposition, but once there heavy rifle and machine gun fire and wire entanglement meant no headway could be made. In this one attack the Battalion lost 77 men, with another 136 wounded or reported missing.

One of those wounded was Lance Corporal Bell, when he broke his leg and was shot in his left thigh. He was taken to #22 Casualty Clearing Station where he died from his wounds on 5th March 1917.

Jacob Coxon Bell is remembered in Amble on A13.01 and A13.07 in Morpeth on M17.06 and at Rothbury on R24.01, R24.02, R24.04, and R24.16

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Corporal Bell