Photo: Brian Chandler
Grenadier Guards
In Cambois (St.Peter) New Burial Ground is a headstone which reads:
In
loving memory
of
George Bell
of Cambois
who died March 10th 1919,
aged 76 years.
Martha, his wife
died June 23rd 1919,
aged 55 years.
Robert, their son
died March 23rd 1917,
aged 29 years.
Cpl. James Bell,
3rd Grenadier Guards, their son,
was killed in action in France
March 28th 1918 aged 28 years.
Derek Johnstone and Carole Fife have provided the following:
James Bell was born at Newsham, a village near to Blyth Northumberland in 1890. His parents were George Bell, a coal miner from Aspatria in Cumberland, and Martha Bell from North Shields, Northumberland.
In 1891 the Bell family lived at Stone Row, Newsham, where James was 11 months old. His siblings at this time included Thomas 20, George 16, Mary Jane 6, Margaret 5 and Robert aged 3.
By 1901 James's family had moved across the River Blyth and lived at Bridge Street, Cambois Northumberland. At this time James is recorded as being 11 years old.
The 1911 Census show James was 21 and employed as a butcher, single and still living with his family at 35, Bridge Street Cambois. His parents at this time had been married over 27 years. Both parents died in 1919.
James Bell enlisted at Blyth and there were no records to indicate he was married.
James Bell is remembered in Cambois on C6.02
